The Madīnan School: ʿUrwah ibn az-Zubayr
He is Abū ʿAbdillāh ʿUrwah ibn az-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām al-Asadī al-Qurashī (raḥimahullāh), one of the Seven Fuqahāʾ of Madīnah. Born in Madīnah in the year 23 AH, that’s 13 years after the passing of the Rasūl salallahu alayhi wasallam, and the end of the Khilāfah of ‘Umar bn Al-Khattāb, radiyallāhu ‘anhu.
His father was az-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, one of the ten promised Paradise; his mother was Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr; and his maternal aunt was Umm al-Muʾminīn ʿĀʾishah. He was the full younger brother of ʿAbdullāh ibn az-Zubayr, the Khalīfah who was born 11 months after Hijrah.
He sought knowledge from the earliest age with complete dedication. His greatest source was his aunt ʿĀʾishah; he remained with her until he had exhausted her knowledge, saying before her death that if she passed away no ḥadīth of hers would be lost because he had memorised them all. He also took from his mother Asmāʾ, from Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū Hurayrah, and other Companions. He became one of the most knowledgeable of the Tābiʿīn in ḥadīth, fiqh, and the maghāzī of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ, and is regarded as one of the earliest systematic collectors of the sīrah.
His major students included Muḥammad ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī, his own son Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, and many others. Az-Zuhrī said: “I sat with Ibn al-Musayyib for seven years and thought no one else possessed knowledge; then I went to ʿUrwah and an ocean burst forth that no buckets could muddy.” ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said he knew of no one more knowledgeable than ʿUrwah.
He was known for his intense worship: he would recite a quarter of the Qurʾān by day from the muṣḥaf and repeat it by night in prayer, and he fasted continuously except on the two ʿĪds. He remained distant from the political turmoil after the death of his brother ʿAbdullāh, focusing entirely on knowledge and ʿibādah.
Among the most striking trials of his life occurred when he travelled to Damascus to visit the caliph al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. An aggressive infection (al-ākilah) developed in his leg. The physicians advised amputation to save his life. He refused any intoxicant or sedative that would remove his awareness of Allāh, and the leg was cut while he continued in dhikr and takbīr without crying out. On the same visit his son Muḥammad was trampled to death by animals in the stables. When news of both losses reached him, he responded only with gratitude, saying: “O Allāh, if You have taken, You have left more; if You have tested, You have long granted health. You took one limb and left me several; You took one son and left me several.”
He left no surviving compiled books, yet his transmissions of ḥadīth and sīrah form a foundational source for later generations. He died in Madīnah in the year 93 or 94 AH (the Year of the Fuqahāʾ) at approximately seventy years of age, and was buried there.
(Named by an-Nasāʾī among the Tābiʿīn of the fuqahāʾ of Madīnah, immediately after Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib.)
