Career
Al-Hakim, who hailed from Nishapur, had vast numbers of teachers in Khurasan, Iraq, Transoxiana and elsewhere. He had scores of notable students, including Imam al-Bayhaqi who was a scholarly giant in his own right. Al-Hakim gained a substantial reputation for writing Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain.
He started writing al-Mustadrak in the year when he was 72 years old. Al-Hakim is quoted to have said: "I drank water from Zamzam and asked Allâh for excellence in writing books". On the 3rd of Safar 405 al-Hakim went into the bath, came out after bathing, said "Ah" and died wearing but a waist-cloth before he had time to put on a shirt.
Later, one of al-Hakim's students, Al-Hasan ibn Ash'ath al-Qurashî said: "I saw al-Hâkim in my dream riding a horse in a handsome appearance and saying: 'Salvation.' I asked him: 'Al-Hakim! In what?' He replied: 'Writing hadith.'"
Shah Waliullah stated that:
A mujaddid appears at the end of every century: The mujaddid of the 1st century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Umar bin Abdul Aziz. The mujaddid of the 2nd century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah Muhammad Idrees Shafi'i. The mujaddid of the 4th century was Abu Abdullah Hakim Nishapuri.
The Shafi'i hadith specialist Ibn al-Salah honours al-Hakim as one of the 'seven compilers of useful compilations' who has the distinction of being one of the few men to have compiled significant works in all three genres of hadith literature. The Shafi'i historian al-Dhahabi calls him "the great hafiz and imam of the traditionists". Despite this, he had been accused of being a Shi'a, but al-Subki stoutly denies this.
Others noted to al-Hakim's sincerity in narrating hadith as the first hadith al-Hâkim narrated is:
May Allah make radiant the face of one who heard one of my sayings and then carried it to others. It may be that one carries understanding without being a person of understanding. It may be that one carries understanding to someone who possesses more understanding than he.
