128- And Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Ḥakkām ibn Salm narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Abī Qays, from ʿĀṣim, from al-Musayyab, from Ibn Masʿūd, he said: "The Long Ones (al-Ṭiwal) are like the Torah, the Hundreds (al-Miʾūn) are like the Gospel, the Mathānī are like the Psalms, and the remainder of the Qurʾān thereafter is an extra excellence over the Scriptures (1)."
129- Abū ʿUbayd al-Waṣṣābī narrated to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Ḥafs narrated to us, he said: Abū Ḥumayd informed us, [he said:] al-Fazārī narrated to us, from Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, from Abū Burda, from Abū al-Malīḥ, from Wāthila ibn al-Asqaʿ, from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of God be upon him, who said: "My Lord gave me the Seven Long Ones in place of the Torah, the Mathānī in place of the Gospel, the Hundreds in place of the Psalms, and my Lord favored me with the Mufaṣṣal (2)."
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Seven Long Ones are: al-Baqara, Āl ʿImrān, al-Nisāʾ, al-Māʾida,
Notes
- (1) Report 128: We did not find this report of Ibn Masʿūd. "ʿĀṣim" is Ibn Abī al-Najūd, with a fatha on the nūn, and he is ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdala. "Al-Musayyab" is Ibn Rāfiʿ al-Asadī; he is a trustworthy Successor (Tabi'i), but he did not meet Ibn Masʿūd; rather, he narrates from Mujāhid and his likes, as Abū Ḥātim said. See al-Tahdhīb (10/153), al-Marāsīl by Ibn Abī Ḥātim (76), and Sharḥ al-Musnad, Hadith: 3676.
- (2) Hadith 129: This is another chain of transmission for the previous Hadith 126, and it is a problematic chain of transmission whose true nature has not become clear to us:
Its beginning is "Abū ʿUbayd al-Waṣābī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ"! This is how it appears in the manuscripts. I fear it is an error; rather, it is most likely in my view that Abū ʿUbayd al-Waṣābī is Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ himself. Ibn Abī Ḥātim provided his biography in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl (3/2/237), saying: "Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ al-Waṣābī al-Ḥimṣī Abū ʿUbayd narrated from Muḥammad ibn Ḥimyar and Abū Ḥaywa Shurayḥ ibn Yazīd. I reached his time and intended to travel to hear from him, but some people of Ḥimṣ said to me: He is not truthful, and he did not meet Muḥammad ibn Ḥimyar, so I left him." Al-Ḥāfiẓ provided his biography in Lisān al-Mīzān (5/146) similarly, adding that Ibn Mandah declared him weak and that Ibn Ḥibbān included him in al-Thiqāt. Likewise, al-Dūlābī mentioned him in al-Kunā (2/75-76) by his name and agnomen, and narrated a hadith from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal from this Abū ʿUbayd.
Then "Abū Ḥumayd", the narrator from whom Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ narrates: I was unable to identify who he is. Likewise "al-Fazārī", the teacher of Abū Ḥumayd, and he might be Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī.
As for Abū Burda: he is Abū Burda ibn Abī Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and he narrates in this chain of transmission from Abū al-Malīḥ ibn Usāma al-Hudhalī; both are Successors (Tabi'i), except that Abū Burda is older than Abū al-Malīḥ, so this is from the narration of the elders from the younger ones.
In Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7/158) there is a hadith similar to this from the hadith of Abū Umāma; al-Haythamī said: "Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and in it is Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, whom a group declared weak, but his hadith is considered for corroboration, and the rest of its men are the men of the Ṣaḥīḥ."
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