Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (the Kufan Qur'an reader)

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, Abd Allah ibn Habib, was one of the great Qur'an teachers of Kufa. Abu Ishaq al-Heweny introduces him in the first lesson of Madrasat al-Hayat, while explaining a reflection in Ibn al-Jawzi's Sayd al-Khatir that takes a saying attributed to him as an example of misunderstanding. ¹ He is not the later Sufi of Nishapur who bears the same kunya, author of Tabaqat al-Sufiyya, who has his own page in the museum: Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami of Nishapur.

Al-Heweny says he read the Qur'an with Uthman, Ibn Mas'ud and Ali ibn Abi Talib, and that Asim ibn Bahdala and others with their own readings and chosen variants took the reading from him. ^{2 3} Ibn al-Nadim likewise says that Asim ibn Bahdala read with Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, and that the reading Asim took goes back to Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) through al-Sulami. ⁴ Al-Heweny says al-Sulami narrated from Uthman the hadith "the best of you is the one who learns the Qur'an and teaches it", which al-Bukhari gives, and that this hadith is sound only from Uthman. ³ He taught the Qur'an for forty years, from the time of Uthman to the time of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi, and used to say that the merit of this hadith was what had sat him in that seat, devoting his life to the Qur'an. ⁵

Al-Heweny attributes to him the report that al-Tabari gives in his Tafsir and Ibn Sa'd and others give too, with a chain he calls sound: those who taught them the Qur'an used to learn ten verses and not pass beyond them until they had acted on what was in them, then move on to another ten, so that they learned knowledge and practice together; in Ibn Sa'd's version he says that after them would come people who recite the Qur'an without it passing their throats. ^{6 7} Al-Heweny mentions that Sa'd ibn Ubayda, who narrates from him in the story of Hatib, was married to his daughter. ⁸

In the reflection on misunderstanding, Ibn al-Jawzi quotes from the Musnad of Ahmad that Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami disputed with Hibban ibn Atiyya and said he knew what had emboldened Hibban's master, meaning Ali, to shed blood: the hadith of the people of Badr. Ibn al-Jawzi counted this a misunderstanding on his part and said what led him to it was that he was an "Uthmani". ^{9 10 11} Al-Heweny explains that an "Uthmani" in their usage was one who placed Uthman before Ali, and that Hibban was an "Alawi" who placed Ali before Uthman; he says this was the view of a group of the early Sunni authorities, not of the Shi'a, and he finds it remarkable that al-Sulami was a Kufan and an Uthmani, since most Kufans inclined to Ali. ^{12 13 14} He says al-Bukhari gives the exchange between them in two places in his Sahih. ¹⁵ The story itself is told in full on the page Hatib's letter to Quraysh.