Sufyan ibn Uyainah
| Abū Muḥammad Sufyān ibn `Uyaynah ibn Maymūn al-Hilālī al-Kūfī | |
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| Title | Shaykh al-Islam |
| Born | 725 CE/107 AH |
| Died | 814 CE/198 AH |
| Region | Mecca |
| Religion | Islam |
| Main interest(s) | Hadith and Tafsir and Fiqh |
Abū Muḥammad Sufyān ibn `Uyaynah ibn Maymūn al-Hilālī al-Kūfī (Arabic: ابو محمد سفيان بن عيينة بن ميمون الهلالي الكوفي) (725 – February 25, 814) was a prominent eighth-century Islamic religious scholar from Mecca. He was from the third generation of Islam referred to as the Tābi`u al-Tābiʻīn, "the followers of the followers". He specialized in the field of hadith and Qur'an exegesis and was described by al-Dhahabī as shaykh al-Islam—a preeminent Islamic authority. Some of his students achieved much renown in their own right, establishing schools of thought that have survived until the present.
Ibn `Uyaynah's father, `Uyaynah ibn Abī ʻImrān, was originally from Kufa in present day Iraq where he was a governor for Khālid ibn ʻAbdillāh al-Qasrī. However, when al-Qasrī was removed from his position his successor sought out his governors causing `Uyaynah to flee to Mecca where he then settled.
Ibn `Uyaynah was born in the year 725-6 CE/107 AH. He was the client (mawlā) of Muḥammad ibn Muzāḥim and began his religious studying while still young. He said of himself that he first sat formally with a religious instructor at 12 when he attended the lessons of ʻAbd al-Karīm Abū Umayyah. Subsequent teachers include ʻAmr ibn Dīnār, al-Zuhrī, Ziyād ibn ʻAllāqah, Abū Isḥāq, al-Aswad ibn Qays, Zayd ibn Aslam, ʻAbdullāh ibn Dīnār, Manṣūr ibn al-Muʻtamir, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim and many others.
By his own account, Ibn `Uyaynah read the entire Qur'an (perhaps meaning that he had memorized it) by the age of four and began writing hadith at age seven. Upon turning 15, his father gave him the following advice which he later said he never turned away from:
My son, the meanderings of childhood have now departed you, associate yourself with good and you will be from its people. And, know that none will be content with the religious scholars unless obedient to them so obey them and be content, serve them and grasp some of their knowledge.
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