Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sireen al-Ansari was born in the year 33 Al-Hijri. He was born in the Iraqi town of Basra. The father of Ibn Sireen was a coppersmith from the town of Jirjaya near Baghdad, while the mother was a servant of the blessed companion Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quhafah as-Siddiq. Ibn Sireen was born with a disease which caused his ears to not function properly, hence he had a difficulty in hearing. He was also raised with a profession of being a cloth merchant. But he decided not to let these factors stop him in his quest to gain knowledge.
Ibn Sireen studied under several companions of the Prophet ﷺ. These included Abu Hurayrah, Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab and the great mufassir, Ibn Abbas. He became a great Faqih, due to his mastery in Islamic jurisprudence. He was able to quote Ahadeeth in verbatim without any error. In fact, his memory was very strong. Even the Christians respected him, and they called him Achmet Ben Seirim, a Latinized translation of the name "Muhammad ibn Sireen".
One of Ibn Sireen's famous abilities was his ability to study and interpret the dreams of a person. He even wrote a book about the interpretation of dreams known as the Tafsir al-Ahlam al-Kabir (Great Book of Dream Interpretation). The book is, unfortunately, now lost, and a modified version with unauthentic and fabricated material is put in its place and attributed to Ibn Sireen himself. This book contains several historical errors as well, such as quoting the famous Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Abdullah al-Kirmani who was born many years after the death of Ibn Sireen.
Muhammad Ibn Sireen passed away in the year 110 Al-Hijri, at the age of seventy-six years. Ibn Sireen was buried in a cemetery at Basra. His tomb would eventually be directly next to the tomb of another great scholar, Imam Abu Sa'eed Al-Hasan. Ibn Sireen had taught many students in his lifetime as well, who would eventually become great scholars as well, such as Imam Abu Khattab Qatadah ibn Di'amah al-Sadusi, the famous muhaddith and mufassir. Indeed, Ibn Sireen's legacy had lived on, in the form of the knowledge he had implanted within his students.
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The Early Zuhaad
Non-FictionA collection of short biographies of early Muslim ascetics, such as Al-Hasan of Basra, Junayd of Baghdad, and Bishr ibn al-Harith al-Hafi. All of these ascetics are firm followers of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
