Sahl bin Abi Hathma

Sahl ibn Abi Hathma al-Ansari al-Awsi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a young companion of the Prophet ﷺ from the Aws tribe of the Ansar. He is particularly known as the central narrator of the important hadith about the al-Qasama (collective oath) procedure in a murder case involving the Ansar and the Jews of Khaybar — a legal procedure of great importance in Islamic criminal law. In this narration, a man from the Ansar was found killed near Khaybar, and the Prophet ﷺ laid out the procedure for the collective oath when the killer could not be identified. This narration is preserved in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim and is one of the primary textual sources for the chapter on qasama in all classical fiqh works. Sahl also narrated other hadiths about the Prophet's ﷺ conduct and practice. Though he was young during the Prophet's lifetime, he preserved important reports about prophetic judicial procedure. He later settled in Medina and continued to transmit knowledge to the Tabi'in. He is considered a reliable companion narrator.