Question:
It is written in an Urdu work authored by Shaykh Fayd Ahmad al-Uwaysi that Sayyiduna Salman al-Farisi radi Allahu anh lived for 300 years, is this correct?
Answer:
Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar said in al-Isaba:
Salmān, Abū ʿAbd Allāh the Persian (d. 32?/653?). … It was said he met ʿĪsā b. Maryam or rather —as was also said—his legatee. His story [to that effect] is narrated through many routes, among its most authentic what Aḥmad narrated of his own recounting. Al-Ḥākim narrated it through another chain, also from him. He also narrated it as a report from Burayda while Bukhārī simply cited some of them chainless. In the actual thread of his account of how he became Muslim there are divergences that are difficult to reconcile. Bukhārī narrated in his Ṣaḥīḥ from him that he passed through two to three dozen masters. Al-Dhahabī said, “I found the different statements regarding his age all indicating that he had passed 250 years of age; they only differ as to how much older than that he was.” He said, “Then I revised that finding and it became apparent to me that he did not live beyond the age of 80.” I say, he did not mention his evidence for the above and it seems to me he deduced it from the fact that Salmān took part in the battles after the time of the Prophet—upon him and his house blessings and peace—and the fact that he married a woman from Kinda among other [aspects] that would indicate there was some vigor left. However, if what they mentioned is true it would be of the breaches of custom with regard to him—and what is the objection? Indeed, Abū al-Shaykh narrated in Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣbahāniyyīn through al-ʿAbbās b. Yazīd that the latter said: “The people of learning hold that Salmān lived 350 years. As for 250, they consider it beyond doubt.”
Hajj Gibril Haddad
