Ahmad 2373

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Ubaydullah is Ibn Abdullah bin Utba bin Masud. Bukhari related the hadith in 8:71-72 and 12:368-369, from Saeed bin Muhammad Jarmi, from Yaqub bin Ibrahim bin Saad, from his father, from Salih, from Abdullah bin Ubayda bin Nushayt, who said, Ubaydullah bin Abdullah said, "I asked Abdullah bin Abbas..." and so on. So he added to the chain Abdullah bin Ubayda bin Nushayt Rabadhi, who is trustworthy, between Salih and Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba.Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari 12:369, "There is a disagreement regarding Yaqub bin Ibrahim bin Saad concerning its chain. Nasai related it from Abu Dawud Harrani, from him, from his father, from Salih, who said, Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba said..." dropping Abdullah bin Ubayda from the chain. Ismaili likewise related it through another route from Abu Dawud Harrani, and also through the narration of Ubaydullah bin Saad bin Ibrahim from his uncle Yaqub. Ismaili said, "These are two trustworthy narrators who related it this way."I say, but Saeed is trustworthy, and Abbas bin Muhammad Duri followed him in narrating from Yaqub bin Ibrahim, which Abu Naeem related in al-Mustakhraj through his route. Hafiz wants to give preference to Bukhari's narration with the addition of Abdullah bin Ubayda in the chain, but I think the narration of Abu Dawud Harrani and Ubaydullah bin Saad from Yaqub is preferable, because Imam Ahmad agreed with them in omitting Abdullah bin Ubayda from the chain. Whatever trustworthiness is attributed to Saeed Jarmi, Bukhari's teacher, and to Abbas bin Muhammad Duri, they will not be more trustworthy than Imam Ahmad nor more retentive than him, and two trustworthy narrators have supported his narration as well.Salih bin Kaysan is a well known successor. He met Ibn Umar and Ibn Zubayr, and heard from senior successors, among them Ubaydullah bin Abdullah bin Utba. Perhaps he heard the hadith from him, and also from Abdullah bin Ubayda, and so narrated it both ways. See the introduction to Fath al-Bari, 413.As for Ibn Abbas's statement, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned to me," in Bukhari's narration it reads, "It was mentioned to me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said..." Hafiz said, 8:72, "That is how it appears, with the dal vowelled with damma, in the passive voice, and the hadith of the chapter before this one makes it clear that the one to whom this was mentioned was Abu Hurairah," referring to the hadith of Nafi bin Jubayr from Ibn Abbas, 8:70, in which it says, Ibn Abbas said, "I asked about the saying of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, 'You are the one shown what you were shown in your dream.' Abu Hurairah informed me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said..." and so on.But the narration in the Musnad here, in both original manuscripts, does not contain the word "that," so it must be that "mentioned" is in the active voice. What appears from the context of Nafi bin Jubayr's hadith is that Ibn Abbas witnessed the incident, the incident of Musaylima's coming, and heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say to him, "You are the one shown what you were shown in your dream," so he asked Abu Hurairah about it. It is not unlikely that he later heard the dream itself from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and so he related it both ways, and his explicit statement here that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned that to him supports this. We have already established that the narration of Imam Ahmad is preferable to that of Saeed Jarmi, Bukhari's teacher. So it is preferable both in chain and in text.Ansi refers to Aswad Ansi, with the letter nun, whose name was Ayhala bin Kaab. He was a fortune teller and a trickster, and he used to show them wondrous things, as Tabari said. Firuz Daylami killed him in the year 11 of the Hijrah. Firuz was a companion from Yemen, one of the sons of the Asawira from Persia, whom Khosrow had sent to fight the Abyssinians. See al-Isabah 5:21 and Tarikh Tabari 3:188 and following."Faqatatuhuma" (so I choked them both) - Ibn Athir said, "It has thus been narrated as a transitive verb, taken according to its meaning, because it means he distressed them and choked them. What is well known is 'qatatu bihi' (I choked with it), meaning the same." Its meaning will come later in the hadith of Abu Hurairah, 8232, 8441, 8511, and also in the hadith of Abu Saeed, 11839.