Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubaydullah ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, usually referred to simply as Ibn Shihab or al-Zuhri in hadith literature. He was a central figure among the early collectors of sīra—biographies of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad and hadith literature. Sufyān said, “I saw al-Zuhrī with his hair flowing to his shoulders and his beard dyed in a fading red colour. It looked as though he dyed it with katam. He was bleared-eyed. I was 17 years old when he came to visit us in the year 123AH and he stayed until 124AH. Mālik was misled by al-Zuhrī’s dyed beard which made him think al-Zuhrī was a young man. Layth ibn Saʿd said, “al-Zuhrī wore a garment dyed in red.”
Life
has an account purporting to be in al-Zuhri's own words describing how he left his home in Medina, went to Damascus to standardise the application of law and was recruited into the administration of the Caliph Abd al-Malik. The Caliph observed that his father had supported Ibn al-Zubayr against him in the recent civil war. But the Caliph's policy toward the Zubayrites was reconciliation and his father's politics were not held against him. No connected account of al-Zuhri's life after that has come down to us. There is no evidence he ever again lived in Medina. Abd al-Malik died in AH 86 and al-Zuhri continued to serve the Umayyad court the rest of his life. He died in AH 124.
and many others. Abu Hatim stated, “The most proficient of Anas ibn Mālik’s students were al-Zuhrī, Qatādah and Thābit al-Bunanī, in that rank.” al-Zuhrī related, “I sat with Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and I did not hear anything but the matters of the Hereafter. I sat with ʿUbaydullāh and I did not hear anyone with more rare narrations than him, and I found ʿUrwah as an ocean of knowledge, who could not be disrupted by vessels.” In the initial conversation with Abd al-Malik the names of earlier Islamic scholars whom al-Zuhri had come in contact with in Madinah are mentioned: 'Abdullah ibn Tha'laba al-'Adawi, Said ibn al-Musayyib, Urwah ibn Zubayr, 'Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Utba, Abu Bakr ibn 'Abdul-Rahman ibn al-Harith, Kharija ibn Zayd ibn Thabit and 'Abdul-Rahman ibn Yazid ibn Jariya. There are many stories about the strength of al-Zuhri's learning and all the scholars in the west who were alive when he died quoted from him in their own works.
Many of the areas under the Umayyads had previously been under the Byzantines or the Persians and previously had their own legal systems. The Qazis used as judges by the Umayyads did not implement a standardised version of jurisprudence. To standardise the legal systems and in complex legal cases, many scholars in Madina would advise these judges. To enhance their education, many Umayyad rulers also sent their children to Madina for education. Shihab al-Zuhri later worked in Damascus and also taught the son of Caliph Hisham. This does not mean that he supported the Umayyads. Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri felt that his student Walid would become a corrupt and oppressive ruler. His relationship with the spoilt prince Walid got so bad that Walid only survived after his father restrained Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri from killing his spoilt son.
Views
Sunni view
Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri is regarded as one of the greatest Sunni authorities on Hadith. The leading critics of Hadith such as Ibn al-Madini, Ibn Hibban, Abu Hatim, Al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani are all agreed upon his indisputable authority. He received ahadith from many Sahaba and numerous scholars among the first and second generations after the Companions narrated from him. On the other hand, in his famous letter to Malik ibn Anas, Laith ibn Sa`d writes: However, this contradicts al-Laith's tremendous praise for him found in books of hadith narrators, such as Tadhhib al-Kamal, nor did it stop him quoting many hadiths from al-Zuhri in traditional Sunni hadith books.
Shia view
Shia do not consider Az-Zuhuri as reliable.This is because he was one of the main people that turned his back on Ahul Bayt & their traditions.Imam As-Sajjad or know to some as Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin wrote him a letter once telling him to renounce the dunya and be pious!
