Hammād Ibn Zayd said: “The people of a man’s city know him best.”
A principle with the People of Hadeeth.
Hammād ibn Zayd (rahimahullāh) said:
“A man would come to us from different cities, and he would be mentioned (with good), so we would narrate from him and speak well of him. But when we asked the people of his own city (regarding him) we would find that he was NOT as we had said (in praise of him).”
He also said: “The people of a man’s city know him best.”
Al-Khatīb (rahimahullāh) commented:
“Due to the fact that they (the people from his city) possessed additional knowledge about his true state – beyond what the outsider knew merely from his outward display of uprightness. Hammād based his judgment upon what the people of the man’s own city knew concerning his flaws, rather than (relying) on the outsider’s testimony of his apparent integrity.”
(Al-Kifāyah, p. 106)
Courtesy of the students of knowledge at “Tower Hamlets Dawah, London” via X @DawahTH
Imām Malik narrated from ‘Abd al-Karīm b. Abī al-Khāriq in his Muwatta, not knowing his true reality. Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr mentions regarding ‘Abd al-Karīm: He was a teacher, and had a dignified appearance, which led Mālik to be misled by his outward demeanor. However, since he was not from Mālik’s land, Mālik was unaware of his true status. (Al-Tamhīd 20/65)
