
2. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal ( SHOCKED

3. Imam al Bukhari (retained many hadith from Abdurrazaq al Sana'ani)
So what do all these scholars have in common?
They all either learnt directly from (Ahmad ibn Hanbal) OR retained hadith from (Al Bukhari) OR generally loved (all Sunni scholars) Imam Abdurrazaq al Sana'ani. Abdurrazaq al Sana'ani was a scholar whom hated the Raafidha passionately as they were misguided even though he himself ascribed to a form of Zaydiyah which is closest to the Shafi'i school of thought.
Examples:
As Imam Dhahabi states in his Siyar, "Abd Al-Razzaq bin Himam, Ibn Nafi', the great hadith master, the scholar of Yemen, Abu Bakr Al-Humayri, their mawla Al-San'ani, the trustworthy, the Shi'ite." (Kitaab Siyar)
An example of a Shi`i narrator retained by Bukhari is the great muhaddith `Abd al-Razzaq al-San`ani (d. 211), the author of the Musannaf, from whom Bukhari took a quantity of hadiths.
Biography of Imam Abdurrazzaq al Sana'ani
One such great personality to have lived and taught in San’a was the great Hadith expert (hafidh), Imam Abd al-Razzaq ibn al-Humam al-Himyari al-San’ani (Allah have mercy on him). The Imam belonged to Himyar, a major Yemeni tribe, and was known as al-San’ani, as he lived in San’a, the capital of Yemen. Imam Abd al-Razzaq was born in 126 AH and studied under a large number of scholars including many of the leading figures of his time. His teachers include: Imam Malik, Ibn Jurayj, Ma’mar, Imam al-Awza’i, Sufyan al-Thawri and Sufyan ibn Uyayna (Allah have mercy on them all). His pursuit of knowledge also saw him travel to Makka, Madina, Syria and Iraq, where he studied under many scholars of his time. His students include figures like Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma’in, Ishaq ibn Rahuya, Ali ibn al-Madeeni and many others (Allah have mercy on them all). Imam Ahmad was one of his main students and travelled to San’a to take the knowledge of Hadith from him. Imam Ahmad has a famous statement which states: “Travelling to San’a is a must even if the journey is very long” (la budda min San’a wa in tala as-safar). Hence, Imam Ahmad sacrificed his time and (along with Imam Yahya ibn Ma’in) travelled to San’a and remained in the company of Imam Abd al-Razzaq for a considerable length of time. Imam Ahmad was asked whether he met anyone who was better in Hadith scholarship than Imam Abd al-Razzaq to which he replied in the negative.
Imam Abd al-Razzaq’s knowledge of Hadith was extensive. He wrote several books, the most important of which is his “al- Musannaf” - a collection of Ahadith in several volumes. His other works include a commentary of the Qur’an and a book on the Prophet’s life. However, only al-Musannaf survives, and has been published more than once. The great Hadith scholar of the Indian subcontinent Shaykh Habib al-Rahman al-A’zami was the first person to have worked on and publish al-Musannaf. A new and fuller edition was later published by Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi in Beirut in 2002. Imam Abd al-Razzaq passed away to the mercy of Allah in the month of Shawwal 211 AH, when he was well over 80 years of age. May Allah have mercy on his soul and grant him Paradise, Ameen. (See: Mu’jam al-Buldan, 3/428 & al-Musannaf, 1/1 Dar Ihya al-Turath al-Arabi edition)