20- Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Makhlad al-Wāsiṭī and Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Ṣadafī narrated to me, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna narrated to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh, whose father informed him: that Umm Ayyūb informed him that the Prophet ﷺ said: "The Qur'an was sent down according to seven Ahruf; whichever of them you recite, you are correct." (1)
21- Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā al-Suddī narrated to us, saying: Sharīk informed us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad, attributing it to the Prophet, saying: "Two angels came to me, and one of them said: 'Recite.' He said: 'According to how many?' He said: 'According to one Harf.' He said: 'Increase it for him,' until he reached seven Ahruf." (2)
Notes
- (1) Hadith 20: Transmitted by Aḥmad in the Musnad (6: 433, 462–463 of the al-Ḥalabī edition), from Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna, via this chain of transmission. Ibn Kathīr cited it in Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān: 64 from the Musnad, and said: "This is a Sahih (Authentic) chain of transmission, and none of the authors of the Six Books compiled it." Al-Haythamī cited it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7: 154), saying: "Transmitted by al-Ṭabarānī, and its men are trustworthy." Thus he fell short, as he did not attribute it to the Musnad first. The wording in the Musnad is: "Whichever [mode] you read, it suffices you." The wording of al-Ṭabarānī agrees with the wording of al-Ṭabarī here.
"ʿUbayd Allāh" in the chain of transmission is ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Yazīd al-Makkī, and he is a well-known trustworthy narrator. His father, "Abū Yazīd al-Makkī," was mentioned by Ibn Ḥibbān in al-Thiqāt.
The hadith will recur under numbers 23 and 24.
- (2) Hadith 21: The hadith in itself is Sahih (Authentic), because its meaning will recur repeatedly within the hadiths of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, which al-Ṭabarī repeated with multiple chains of transmission under numbers 25–39. Their discussion will come in their proper places, God willing.
As for this specific chain of transmission, it occurred thus in al-Ṭabarī, from the hadith of Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad. Al-Haythamī cited something similar in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (7: 153) from the hadith of Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad, saying: "Transmitted by al-Ṭabarānī, and in it is Jaʿfar, whom I do not know, while the rest of its men are trustworthy." Al-Ṭabarānī's chain of transmission is not before us for us to pass judgment on it; perhaps the name "Jaʿfar"—whom al-Haythamī did not recognize in his chain—is a corruption of something else.
Ibn Kathīr cited this hadith in al-Faḍāʾil: 61 from this place in al-Ṭabarī, then said: "Al-Nasāʾī transmitted it in [ʿAmal] al-Yawm wa-l-Layla: from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Salām, from Isḥāq al-Azraq, from al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, from Abū Isḥāq, from Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad, who said: Ubayy ibn Kaʿb brought two men to the Messenger of Allah, Peace and blessings of God be upon him, who differed in recitation... and he mentioned the hadith. Likewise, Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ transmitted it from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, from al-ʿAwwām, from Abū Isḥāq, from Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad, from Ubayy: that he brought two men to the Prophet, Peace and blessings of God be upon him, and he mentioned it."
These two chains of transmission mentioned by Ibn Kathīr are Sahih (Authentic), proving that Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad only heard this hadith from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb.
The error that occurred in al-Ṭabarī's chain of transmission here—by omitting "Ubayy ibn Kaʿb"—was not the error of Sharīk ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Nakhaʿī, who narrated it from Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī. Rather, the error—in what I deem most probable—is either from Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā al-Suddī, the sheikh of al-Ṭabarī, or from al-Ṭabarī himself. For the hadith was transmitted by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in his father's (5: 125, al-Ḥalabī edition) from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Warkānī, from Abū Isḥāq, from Sulaymān, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb—in abridged form, as here. The hadith will come at length from the narration of Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb under number 25.
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