Imām Ibn Mājah

Imām Ibn Mājah (Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah al-Rabaʿī al-Qazwīnī, 209 – 273 AH / 824 – 887 CE)

Early Life and Background

Imām Muḥammad ibn Yazīd ibn Mājah al-Rabaʿī al-Qazwīnī [الإمام محمد بن يزيد بن ماجه الربيعي القزويني] was born in 209 AH / 824 CE in the city of Qazwīn (قزوين), located in northern Iran.^1
His kunyah was Abū ʿAbd Allāh, and the epithet Ibn Mājah [ابن ماجه] was derived from his father’s nickname, Mājah, which likely referred to a profession or tribal lineage rather than a proper name.^2

Qazwīn at the time was a vibrant scholarly city that served as a gateway between the heartlands of Persia and the broader ʿAbbāsid intellectual world. There, Ibn Mājah grew up in a family known for learning and piety.^3

From a young age, he displayed a love for the prophetic traditions (ḥadīth – حديث) and began studying under the prominent teachers of Qazwīn, memorizing both Qurʾān and hadith before reaching maturity.^4

Youth and the Quest for Knowledge

Following the path of his predecessors, Ibn Mājah began extensive scholarly travels (riḥlah fī ṭalab al-ʿilm – رحلة في طلب العلم) in pursuit of authentic knowledge.
He journeyed across the great centers of hadith learning, including:

Khurasān (خراسان)
Basra (البصرة) and Kufa (الكوفة)
Baghdad (بغداد)
Syria (الشام)
Egypt (مصر)
Mecca (مكة) and Medina (المدينة المنورة)

He sought out both the senior transmitters of the generation following al-Bukhārī and the surviving students of early masters such as Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal.^5

Among his prominent teachers were:

ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭanafisī (علي بن محمد الطنافسي)
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir (إبراهيم بن المنذر)
Muḥammad ibn Rumḥ (محمد بن رمح)
ʿAmr ibn Rāfiʿ (عمرو بن رافع)
and others who transmitted from the foremost hadith critics of the 3rd century AH.^6

Scholarly Life and Methodology

Hadith Compilation and Principles

Imām Ibn Mājah combined the rigorous critical tradition of his predecessors with a keen interest in preserving narrative completeness — collecting not only what was sound (ṣaḥīḥ – صحيح) but also what was rare or regionally transmitted, with clear grading indications.^7
His approach mirrors that of al-Tirmidhī in its inclusiveness, but with a sharper emphasis on preserving local chains from Qazwīn and Khurasān.

He was known for his cautious verification of narrators (al-jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl – الجرح والتعديل) and his practice of noting obscure transmitters whose reports would otherwise be lost.^8

Beyond hadith, Ibn Mājah was also a mufassir (exegete – مفسر) and historian (muʾarrikh – مؤرخ), producing works in tafsīr and history, though these have not survived fully.^9

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
Sunan Ibn Mājah	سنن ابن ماجه	Collection of prophetic traditions	His magnum opus and one of the Kutub al-Sittah (الكتب الستة). Contains approximately 4 341 hadiths covering jurisprudence, manners, and belief.^10
Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-Karīm	تفسير القرآن الكريم	Qurʾānic exegesis	A major early tafsīr, now lost, but referenced by later scholars such as al-Dhahabī and al-Ṣuyūṭī.^11
Tārīkh Ibn Mājah	تاريخ ابن ماجه	Early historical chronicle	Contained biographies of narrators and events; considered among the earliest independent tārīkh works, though most of it perished.^12

About Sunan Ibn Mājah

The Sunan Ibn Mājah stands as the sixth canonical collection among the Kutub al-Sittah, though some early authorities replaced it with the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Mālik in earlier enumerations.^13
It is valued for including narrations absent from the other five canonical works, adding nearly 1 300 unique reports (zawāʾid – زوائد) not found in al-Bukhārī, Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, or al-Nasāʾī.^14

Structure and Arrangement

The Sunan is divided into 37 books (kutub – كتب) and about 1 500 chapters (abwāb – أبواب).
Its organization follows the pattern of legal subjects (fiqh – فقه):
faith, purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, marriage, transactions, judiciary, and eschatology.^15

Ibn Mājah often cites weak or contested reports but clearly marks their chains, enabling later critics to evaluate them. His inclusion of such narrations was intentional — to preserve all levels of prophetic transmission, not merely the strongest.^16

Reputation Among Scholars

The reception of Sunan Ibn Mājah among scholars evolved over time.

Early critics such as Ibn al-Qaysarānī (d. 507 AH) and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (d. 264 AH) initially considered some of its chains weak but praised its structure and comprehensiveness.^17
Al-Dhahabī (الذهبي) later wrote:

“He compiled a Sunan of great benefit, in which there are some weak narrations, but overall it is among the finest works.”^18
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī described him as thiqah (trustworthy – ثقة), ḥāfiẓ (memorizer – حافظ), and ṣāḥib al-sunan al-mashhūr (author of the famous Sunan).^19

Despite including some weak chains, the Sunan Ibn Mājah remained widely circulated and firmly secured its place in the canonical six by the 5th century AH.

Later Life and Death

Imām Ibn Mājah continued teaching and transmitting in his hometown of Qazwīn until his passing.
He remained known for his modest lifestyle, meticulous verification of isnād, and nightly worship (qiyām al-layl – قيام الليل).^20

He passed away in 273 AH / 887 CE at the age of approximately 64, and was buried in Qazwīn.^21
His grave remained a site of scholarly visitation, symbolizing the endurance of hadith study in Persia.

Legacy

Imām Ibn Mājah occupies a distinguished position as the seventh pillar of canonical hadith preservation.
His Sunan provided the missing link between the earlier five collections, completing the synthesis that later scholars referred to as the Kutub al-Sittah.

More than a compiler, he represented the culmination of the riḥlah tradition — a generation of scholars who traveled across continents for a single isnād.
Through him, the prophetic voice extended into later centuries, guiding both jurists and spiritual seekers.

Today, Sunan Ibn Mājah remains indispensable to hadith students for its zawāʾid (unique additions) and for its historical depth that records narrations overlooked elsewhere.

References

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Ibn Mājah.”
Jonathan A. C. Brown, Hadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009), 73.
The Muslim Vibe, “A Short Biography of Imam Ibn Majah,” accessed October 2025, https://themuslimvibe.com/faith-islam/a-short-biography-of-imam-ibn-majah.
IslamicFinder.org, “Biography of Imam Ibn Majah,” accessed October 2025.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 13 (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1982), 292.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, vol. 9 (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1968), 50.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Brown, Hadith, 74.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar, vol. 13, 293.
Sunnah.com, “About Sunan Ibn Majah,” accessed October 2025, https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah/about.
Al-Ṣuyūṭī, Tadrīb al-Rāwī fī Sharḥ Taqrīb al-Nawawī (Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1994), 132.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar, vol. 13, 295.
Brown, Hadith, 75.
Mohammad Hashim Kamalī, A Textbook of Hadith Studies (Oxford: Islamic Foundation, 2005), 108.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, 51.
Ibn al-Qaysarānī, al-Sunan al-Sittah wa faḍl mā fī Sunan Ibn Mājah (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1988), 5.
Al-Dhahabī, Siyar, vol. 13, 296.
Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb, 52.
Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, vol. 11 (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr, 1986), 244.
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.