The Imam of Al-Jarh and At-Ta’deel(The knowledge of what was transmitted concerning the reliability of the individual narrators of Hadith) Yahya Ibn
Sa’eed Al-Qattaan said that “By Allah, Imam Abu Haneefah is the most knowledgeable person of this Ummah of what has come from Allah and his Messenger (SAW).” Yahya Ibn Sa’eed Al-Qattaan is not only a great Muhaddith of the past, but he is one of the first Imaams in regards to the science of Al-Jarh and At-Ta’deel. His opinions are taken by all the scholars in regards to narrators of Hadith. In order to illustrate, Yahya Ibn Sa’eed Al-Qattan’s rank, we will mention an incident. Al- Aini (RA) has mentioned in his book Umdatul Qaari that after the Asr prayer, Yahya ibn Sa’eed would sit leaning on the pillar in his Masjid and people like Yahya ibn Ma’in, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Ali ibn Al-Madeeni would be standing in front of him. And they would stand and ask him about Hadith until Maghrib prayer. Yahya ibn Sa’eed would be answering their questions, and out of respect for him, they would not sit for the entire time and he would not tell them to sit either. These great scholars (i.e., Yahya ibn Ma’in, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and Ali ibn Al-Madeeni) who are the teachers of Imam Al- Bukhari9, and whom Al-Bukhari took his Saheeh to, in order that they may check it after it was completed, were standing in front of Yahya Ibn Sa’eed Al-Qattaan like students, showing Yahya’s status in Hadith. And this same Yahya Ibn Sa’eed is the one who is saying that he has not heard of better opinions than those of Imam Abu Hanifa and that he takes most of Abu Hanifah’s Fataawa and that Al-Imam is the most knowledgeable person of this Ummah.
