His full name is Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Mundhir ibn Dāwūd ibn Mihrān al-Rāzī al-Ḥanẓalī al-Ghaṭafānī. Some sources suggest that he was originally from Isfahan and was a mawla of the Ghatafan tribe. Other sources suggest that he acquired his nisbat from a street of Ray called "Darb Ḥanẓalah". He died on the month of Sha’bân in the year 277H/11-12.890 CE.[5][6]
He narrated from many, such that al-Khalili said, “Abu Hatim al-Labban al-Ḥāfiẓ said to me, ‘I had gathered [those] who Abu Hatim ar-Razi narrated from; they reached close to 3,000.’”[5]
Abū Zur’ah told Abū Ḥātim, “I have not seen [anyone] more intent on seeking the hadîth than you.”
Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlá said, “Abu Zur’ah and Abū Hâtim are the two Imams of Khurasan.” He supplicated for them both and said, “Their continuance is an improvement for the Muslims.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “I heard Mūsâ bin Is·hâq al-Qâdî saying, ‘I have not seen [anyone] who memorized more hadith than your father,’ and he had met Abū Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Numayr, Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Yahya al-Himmani.”
Ahmad ibn Salamah an-Naisâbūrî said, “I have not seen after Ishaq and Muhammad ibn Yahya [anyone] more preserving of the hadîth or more knowledgeable of its meanings than Abi Hatim ar-Razi.”
Uthman ibn Khurrazad said, “The most preserving of those I saw are four: Muhammad ibn al-Minhal ad-Darir, Ibrâhîm ibn ‘Ar’arah, Abu Zur’ah ar-Razi, and Abu Hatim.”
Al-Khalili said, Abū Hâtim was a scholar of the Companions’ differences [of opinion] and the jurisprudence of the Followers and [those] after them. I heard my grandfather and a group [who] heard ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan saying, “I have not seen the like of Abu Hatim.” So we told him, “[But] you had seen Ibrâhîm al-Harbî and Isma’il al-Qadi.” He said, “I have not seen [anyone] more complete or more virtuous than Abu Hatim.”
Abu al-Qasim al-Lalaka’i said, “Abū Hâtim was an imam, a ḥāfiẓ, a verifier.”
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said, “Abū Hâtim was one of the credible, ḥāfiẓ imams.”
Al-Dhahabi said, “He was among the oceans of knowledge. He travelled about the countries and excelled in the text and the chain [of transmission]. He gathered and compiled, disparaged and accredited, authenticated and deemed defective.” He said, “He was one of the notables and from the formidable imams of the People of the Relic … he was a neighbour in the arena of his comrade and relative, the ḥāfiẓ Abu Zur’ah.” [7]
Jonathan A. C. Brown identifies him as one of the three most important hadith critics of his generation, alongside al-Bukhārī and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (Hadith, 81).
^ abAbrahamov, Binyamin (1998). "APPENDIX I: THE CREED OF ABU ZUR'A UBAYDALLAH IBN 'ABD AL-KARIM AL RAZI (D. 264/878) AND ABU HATIM MUHAMMAD IBN IDRIS AL-RAZI (D . 277 /890)". Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism. George Square, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 54–56. ISBN0-7486-1102-9.
^Dickinson, Eerik (2001). The development of early Sunnite hadīth criticism: the Taqdima of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (240/854-327/938). BRILL. ISBN978-90-04-11805-8.
