18- Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā narrated to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Hishām ibn Saʿd informed me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī, from Zubayd, from ʿAlqama al-Nakhaʿī, he said: When ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd departed from al-Kūfa, his companions gathered around him and bade him farewell. Then he said: Do not dispute over the Qurʾān, for it does not conflict, nor does it fade away, nor does it change due to frequent repetition. And the Sharia of Islam, its prescribed punishments, and its obligatory duties in it are one and the same. If one of the two modes were to prohibit something that the other commands, that would be disagreement. But it encompasses all of that; neither the prescribed punishments nor the obligatory duties nor any of the laws of Islam differ in it. I have seen us disputing over it in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (Peace and blessings of God be upon him), and he would command us and we would recite to him, and he would inform us that every one of us was doing well. If I knew anyone more knowledgeable than me regarding what Allah revealed to His Messenger, I would seek him out to add his knowledge to my knowledge. I have recited directly from the mouth of the Messenger of Allah (Peace and blessings of God be upon him) seventy Sūras, and I knew that the Qurʾān was presented to him every Ramadan, until the year in which he passed away, when it was presented to him twice; whenever he finished, I would recite to him and he would inform me that I was doing well. So whoever recites according to my recitation, let him not abandon it out of dislike for it; and whoever recites according to any of these modes, let him not abandon it out of dislike for it, for whoever denies a single verse of it denies all of it. (1)
Notes
- (1) Hadith 18—Its chain of transmission is extremely weak, weak to the utmost degree, for two reasons:
The first of them: "ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī," who is "al-Lihbī," from the descendants of Abū Lahab. Al-Bukhārī said in al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr (196) and in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (25): "Disapproved in hadith, Aḥmad was not pleased with him." And Ibn Abī Ḥātim said in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl (3/1/197): "I asked my father about ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Lihbī, and he said: 'Disapproved in hadith, they abandoned him.'" And he said: "Abū Zurʿa was asked about ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Hāshimī, and he said: 'He is from the descendants of Abū Lahab, a Medinan who is weak in hadith, disapproved in hadith.'" And Ibn Ḥibbān said in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (315): "He narrates fabricated reports from trustworthy narrators, and inverted reports from reliable authorities; it is not permissible to use his narrations as proof."
The second of them: That "Zubayd ibn al-Ḥārith al-Yāmī" did not meet ʿAlqama nor did he narrate from him; rather, he narrates from the generation that narrated from ʿAlqama. Thus, his narration from him here is broken (munqaṭiʿ), even if the chain of transmission leading to him were authentic, and it is not authentic at all.
A similar hadith has come from Ibn Masʿūd through another route that is also weak: Aḥmad narrated it in al-Musnad (no. 3845) at length, via Shuʿba from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀbis, who said: "A man from Hamdān, among the companions of ʿAbd Allāh, narrated to us, but he did not name him for us..." etc. This narrator from Ibn Masʿūd is unknown, so it cannot be authentic. Al-Haythamī mentioned it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7/153) in brief, saying: "Imam Aḥmad narrated it in a long hadith, as did al-Ṭabarānī; in it is someone who was not named, and the rest of its men are the men of the Ṣaḥīḥ."
My brother al-Sayyid Maḥmūd Muḥammad Shākir said: The wording in al-Musnad is: "Verily, this Qur'an does not differ, nor does it become worn out (yastashinn), nor does it become trivial (yatfah) due to frequent repetition." "Istashanna": to become old and worn out like an old, worn waterskin (shann bālī). His saying "la yatfah": it does not become trivial; the trivial (tāfih) is the insignificant. Any speech whose recital you repeat, its meanings become exhausted and its impact weakens, except the Qur'an. As for his saying in al-Ṭabarī's narration here, "nor does it dissipate (yatalāshā)", the linguists said that it is a post-classical coin (muwallad) derived from "lā shayʾ" (nothing), as if it dissolved until it became nothing. Its occurrence in this learned scholar's text is strange.
I say: Since it has become clear that its narrator, "ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Lihbī," is among those who fabricate hadiths and narrate fabricated reports from trustworthy narrators, as Ibn Ḥibbān stated, it is not improbable that he uttered this post-classical word from himself. He is a late narrator who reached the era of post-classical coinages, as al-Bukhārī dated him in the chapter of those who died between the years 170–180.
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