Biography of Aws ibn Hudhayfah
(b d ') Aws ibn Hudhayfah ibn Rabi'ah ibn Abi Salamah ibn Ghiyarah ibn 'Awf al-Thaqafi, and he is Aws ibn Abi Aws.
al-Bukhari said: Aws ibn Hudhayfah ibn Abi 'Amr ibn Wahb ibn 'Amir ibn Yasar ibn Malik ibn Hutayt ibn Jusham al-Thaqafi, who came as a delegate to the Prophet ﷺ; from him related his son and 'Uthman ibn 'Abd Allah, and 'Abd al-Malik ibn al-Mughirah.
Muhammad ibn Sa'd al-Waqidi said: And among those of the Companions who settled in al-Ta'if was: Aws ibn Hudhayfah al-Thaqafi; he was in the delegation of Thaqif, and he related from the Prophet ﷺ. All of this Ibn Mandah said.
As for Abu 'Umar, he said: Aws ibn Hudhayfah al-Thaqafi, he is also called: Aws ibn Abi Aws, he said: and Khalifah ibn Khayyat said: Aws ibn Aws, and Aws ibn Abi Aws, and the name of Abi Aws is Hudhayfah (1).
Abu 'Umar said: And he is the grandfather of 'Uthman ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Aws, and Aws ibn Hudhayfah has hadiths, among them the wiping over the feet, in whose chain there is weakness; and he was in the delegation that came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the Banu Malik, so he lodged them in a tent between the mosque and his dwelling, and he used to go to them frequently and relate to them after the final 'isha' [prayer], and Ibn Ma'in said: The chain of this hadith is sound, and his hadith from the Prophet ﷺ is a hadith that is not firmly established regarding the apportioning (2) of the Qur'an.
This is the statement of Abu 'Umar, and he has made Aws ibn Hudhayfah to be the son of Abi Aws, so I do not know why he made them two [separate] biographies, when in his view they are one [person].
As for Abu Nu'aym, he said: Aws ibn Hudhayfah al-Thaqafi, and he traced his lineage just as it preceded at the beginning of the biography. And he related that which Abu al-Fadl 'Abd Allah al-Khatib informed us of, with his chain to Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi: 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Ta'ifi informed us, on the authority of 'Uthman ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Aws al-Thaqafi, from his grandfather Aws ibn Hudhayfah, who said:
«We, the delegation of Thaqif, came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so the Ahlaf [confederate clans] lodged with al-Mughirah ibn Shu'bah, and he lodged the Maliki clans in his tent, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to come to us and relate to us after the final 'isha' [prayer], until he would shift his weight (3) from one foot to the other from the length of standing, and the most of what he used to relate to us was the complaint of Quraysh, he would say: We were in Mecca downtrodden and oppressed, and when we came to Medina we got the upper hand over the people, so it was in turns: the war [going] for us and against us, and he held back from us one night past the time at which he used to come to us, then he came to us and we said: O Messenger of Allah, you held back from us tonight past the time at which you used to come to us, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
It is that my portion (hizb) of the Qur'an came over me, so I did not wish to go out until I had completed it, he said: So when we entered upon morning, we asked the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the portions (ahzab) of the Qur'an: How do you apportion it? So he said: three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, and the portion of al-Mufassal (4)».
Abu Nu'aym said: Some of the later [scholars] related it from 'Uthman ibn 'Abd Allah, from his father, from his grandfather Aws ibn Hudhafah, so he erred regarding this hadith in three respects: the first of them is that he added in it "from his father, from his grandfather Aws ibn Hudhafah"; the second is that he made the name Hudhayfah [into] Hudhafah; and the third is that he built the biography upon Aws ibn 'Awf, while he brought out the hadith from Aws ibn Hudhafah. The earlier [scholars] only differed regarding this Aws al-Thaqafi, so among them is he who said: Aws ibn Hudhayfah, and among them is he who said:
Aws ibn Abi Aws, and he gave a kunyah to his father, and among them is he who said: Aws ibn Aws, and as for Aws ibn Abi Aws al-Thaqafi, and it is said:
Aws ibn Aws, the Syrians related from him and he is counted among them, so among those who related from him: Abu al-Ash'ath al-San'ani, of San'a' of Damascus, and Abu Asma' al-Rahabi, and 'Ubadah ibn Nusayy, and Ibn Muhayriz, and Marthad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Yazani,
and 'Abd al-Malik ibn al-Mughirah al-Ta'ifi, so Abu al-Ash'ath related from him: «Whoever washes and performs ghusl» the hadith. He said:
Abu Nu'aym: He died in the year fifty-nine.
This is the statement of Abu Nu'aym, and he has made Aws ibn Abi Aws al-Thaqafi and Aws ibn Hudhayfah one [person], and made the one who related from him Abu al-Ash'ath, and made him a Syrian.
And that which Muhammad ibn Sa'd said: that Aws ibn Hudhayfah al-Thaqafi settled in al-Ta'if, so then he would be other than the one who settled in Syria, from whom the Syrians related, and Abu Nu'aym said, on the authority of Muhammad ibn Sa'd: that the one who settled in al-Ta'if was Aws ibn 'Awf al-Thaqafi, and he said: he is Aws ibn Hudhayfah, and he attributed him to his grandfather; but Ibn Mandah did not transmit from Muhammad ibn Sa'd except Aws ibn Hudhayfah, not Aws ibn 'Awf, so Abu Nu'aym has no proof in it, so the three became, in the view of Abu Nu'aym, one [person], and they are: Aws ibn Hudhayfah, Aws ibn Abi Aws, and Aws ibn 'Awf. As for Abu 'Umar, he made them three, and made for them three biographies.
As for Ibn Mandah, he made the men of Thaqif three, and they are: Aws ibn Aws, Aws ibn Hudhayfah, and Aws ibn 'Awf, and he said regarding Aws ibn 'Awf: He died in the year fifty-nine, just as Abu Nu'aym said regarding Aws ibn Hudhayfah, and this supports the statement of Abu Nu'aym that the two of them are one [person].
And al-Bukhari has made the three one [person], for he said: Aws ibn Hudhayfah al-Thaqafi, the father of 'Amr ibn Aws, and it is said:
Aws ibn Abi Aws, and it is said: Aws ibn Aws; this is his wording. And Ibn Mandah transmitted from him in the biography of Aws ibn Aws that he made them three, while that which we have transmitted from his history is what we have mentioned, so I do not know how this was transmitted from al-Bukhari.
And Ahmad ibn Hanbal made Aws ibn Abi Aws to be Aws ibn Hudhayfah, for he said in the Musnad: Aws ibn Abi Aws al-Thaqafi, and he is Aws ibn Hudhayfah.
'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Hibat Allah ibn Abi Habbah informed us of it, with his chain to 'Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He said: My father narrated to me: Hushaym informed us, on the authority of Ya'la ibn 'Ata', from his father Aws ibn Aws al-Thaqafi, who said: «I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ come to a water-channel (kizamah) (1) of a people and perform ablution.» And Allah knows best.