ibn Salama, from Ḥumayd, from Anas ibn Mālik, from ʿUbāda ibn al-Ṣāmit, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "The Qur'an was sent down according to seven Ahruf." (1)
29- Abū Kurayb narrated to us, saying: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī and Abū Usāma narrated to us, from Zāʾida, from ʿĀṣim, from Zirr, from Ubayy, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ met Gabriel at the Rocks of Mirāʾ and said: "I have been sent to an unlettered nation, among whom are the youth, the servant, the aged old man, and the elderly woman." Gabriel said: "Then let them recite the Qur'an according to seven Ahruf." (2) And the wording of the hadith is that of Abū Usāma.
Notes
- (1) Hadith 28— And this chain of transmission is also authentic, except that Ḥammād ibn Salamah added "ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit" between Anas and Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. We will explain that, God willing.
And Muḥammad ibn Marzūq, the teacher of al-Ṭabarī, is Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Marzūq al-Bāhilī, named after his grandfather. He is trustworthy; Muslim narrated from him in his Ṣaḥīḥ, as did al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, and others. His teacher Abū al-Walīd is al-Ṭayālisī, and his name is Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, an imam, a memorizer, and an authority.
And the hadith was narrated by Aḥmad in al-Musnad 5: 114 (al-Ḥalabī edition), in this concise form, from ʿAffān from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, with this chain of transmission. Then he narrated it with the same chain of transmission at length, similar to the previous narration in 26 and 27. Then he narrated it from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd from Ḥumayd from Anas: "that Ubayy said"—referring to that narration, and then said: "and he did not mention ʿUbādah in it."
So what appears—to me—is that Ḥammād ibn Salamah was the only one who added "ʿUbādah" in the chain of transmission. Perhaps this was an oversight on his part, for the narrators we mentioned previously narrated it without this addition, and they are greater in number, more retentive, and more precise than him.
Whichever the case, the hadith is authentic, whether Anas heard it directly from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, or heard it from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit from Ubayy.
- (2) Hadith 29— And this chain of transmission is also authentic. Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī is al-Juʿfī. Abū Usāmah is Ḥammād ibn Usāmah. Zāʾidah is Ibn Qudāmah. ʿĀṣim is Ibn Bahdalah, who is Ibn Abī al-Najūd. Zirr is Ibn Ḥubaysh.
And the hadith was narrated by Aḥmad in al-Musnad 5: 132 from Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Juʿfī from Zāʾidah, and from Abū Saʿīd, client of Banū Hāshim, also from Zāʾidah. Ibn Kathīr cited it in al-Faḍāʾil: 59 from the first narration of al-Musnad.
And Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated it in his Musnad no. 543 from Ḥammād ibn Salamah. al-Tirmidhī narrated it 4: 61 from the route of Shaybān—who is Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Naḥwī—both from ʿĀṣim, with this chain of transmission, similar to it. al-Tirmidhī said: "This is a Hasan Sahih (good and authentic) hadith. It has been narrated from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb through more than one route."
"Aḥjār al-Mirāʾ", with a kasrah on the mīm, a single rāʾ, and elongated: a place in Qubāʾ, outside Medina. Mujāhid said: "It is Qubāʾ," as in al-Nihāyah by Ibn al-Athīr 1: 203, 4: 91, al-Qāmūs and its commentary 3: 127, and Wafāʾ al-wafā by al-Samhūdī 2: 244. We have not found any disagreement on that, except what Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī went to in : 117, as he claimed that it is "a place in Mecca, on the wording of the plural of (stone), where Quraysh used to contend with one another, and it is Ṣafī al-Sibāb", then he mentioned this hadith as evidence; I deem it most likely that it was an error on his part; due to the similarity in meaning between the two expressions, his mind moved to assuming the unity of the two places. For "Ṣafī al-Sibāb" is "a place in Mecca where Quraysh used to contend with one another", as Abū ʿUbayd himself said under the entry "Ṣafī": 838, so his mind shifted and he said right after that: "And it is the place known as Aḥjār al-Mirāʾ"!! And "al-mirāʾ" is from (contention), and "al-ṣafī", with a ḍammah on the , kasrah on the , and a doubled , is the plural of , and is the plural of , which is the hard, massive rock upon which nothing grows.
Among what reinforces certainty regarding what Abū ʿUbayd erred in is that in some coming narrations of this hadith: "at Aḍāʾat Banī Ghifār", which is definitely a place in Medina. Abū ʿUbayd himself clarified that in: 164, and mentioned the hadith in the coming narration as evidence for it as well.
And his statement "and the aging old man", in the printed edition of al-Ṭabarī "and the decrepit old man", in the manuscript "al-ʿāshī", and in "al-ʿāṣī". They all carry the same sense. And means: when he grows old, advances in age, his sight weakens, his skin dries, and he hardens. Similar to it is . Al-Azharī said: ": when he hardens, as if he meant with a and turned it into a ." (: ʿaṣā).
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