Ahmad 5635

Its isnad is sahih. Saeed bin Abu Ayub Khuzai Misri is trustworthy. Ibn Main and Nasai confirmed his trustworthiness, and Ibn Saad said, "He was firmly trustworthy." Bukhari included his biography in Tarikh al-Kabir, 1/419/4.Abu Hani is Humayd bin Hani Khawlani Misri, and he is trustworthy. Abu Hatim said, "Sound." Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the trustworthy in the generation of the Followers, and Ibn Shahin said in Thiqat, "He is the most senior teacher of Ibn Wahb." Bukhari included his biography in Tarikh al-Kabir, 1/350/2.Abbas bin Jalid Hajari Misri is trustworthy. Abu Zura and Ajli confirmed his trustworthiness, and Ibn Yunus said he died close to the year 100. Abu Hatim said, "I do not know" whether Abbas bin Jalid heard from Abdullah bin Umar. This is how it was transmitted in Tahzib from Ibn Abu Hatim from his father, but this is not found in Ibn Abu Hatim's book, Jarh wa Tadil. Rather, his biography there, at 3/1/210, reads, "Abbas bin Jalid Hajari, an Egyptian, narrated from Ibn Umar, and Abu Hani Khawlani narrated from him. I heard my father say that." Then he said, "Abu Zura was asked about Abbas bin Jalid Hajari, and he said, 'An Egyptian, trustworthy.'" So I do not know where the Hafiz got what he transmitted in Tahzib.Furthermore, this Abbas died early and certainly lived at the same time as Ibn Umar, which is sufficient to establish a connection, since he was not accused of tadlis, let alone that he explicitly stated he heard from him, as will be shown. Bukhari included his biography in Tarikh al-Kabir, 4/1/403, and we will mention his statement below.Jalid, with damma on the jim and fatha on the lam, as Dhahabi vocalized it in Mushtabih, 188, and others as well, though some corrupted it to Khalid with a dotted kha instead of jim. Bukhari said in Tarikh al-Kabir that this is a mistake.Hajari, with fatha on the plain ha and sukun on the jim, is a designation relating to Hajr Dhi Rain, as in Mushtabih, 149, and Ansab, folio 157.This hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud, in part of its meaning, at 4:506, 507, from Ahmad bin Saeed Hamdani and Ahmad bin Amr bin Sarh, from Ibn Wahb, from Abu Hani, from Abbas, who said, "I heard Abdullah bin Umar say, 'A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, "O Messenger of Allah, how many times should we forgive the servant?" The Prophet remained silent. The man repeated his words, and the Prophet remained silent again. When it happened a third time, he said, "Forgive him seventy times every day."'"Tirmidhi narrated it at 3:130, from Qutayba, from Rushdin bin Saad, from Abu Hani, similar to Abu Dawud's version, then said, "This is a hasan gharib hadith. Abdullah bin Wahb narrated it from Abu Hani Khawlani with this chain, similarly." Then he narrated it from Qutayba, from Ibn Wahb, from Abu Hani, then said, "Some narrated this hadith from Abdullah bin Wahb with this chain, saying, 'from Abdullah bin Amr.'"However, the copy of Abu Dawud that Munziri heard had "Abdullah bin Amr" in it, and that is why he said in his commentary on it, as transmitted from him in Awn al-Mabud, "This is how it occurred in what we heard, while in other copies it is Abdullah bin Umar." Tirmidhi also transmitted it likewise and said, "Hasan gharib." He said, "Some narrated this hadith from Abdullah bin Wahb with this chain, saying, 'from Abdullah bin Amr.'" Some mentioned that Abu Dawud narrated it from the hadith of Abdullah bin Umar.Abbas bin Jalid, with damma on the jim, fatha on the lam, sukun on the ya, followed by a plain dal, is an Egyptian who is trustworthy. Ibn Yunus mentioned him in Tarikh Misriyyin and mentioned that he narrates from Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab and Abdullah bin Harith bin Juz. Ibn Abu Hatim mentioned that he narrates from Ibn Umar, and Amir Abu Nasr mentioned that he narrates from Abdullah bin Umar and Abdullah bin Amr bin As and Abdullah bin Juz.Bukhari recorded this in his Tarikh from the hadith of Abbas bin Jalid, from Abdullah bin Amr bin As, and also from the hadith of Abbas bin Jalid from Ibn Umar, and he said, "It is a hadith with something questionable in it."This, then, is Munziri's version in the copy of Abu Dawud, but the sound copies of Abu Dawud, which his commentator Awn al-Mabud relied upon, and the sound manuscript copy that I have, corrected by Shaykh Abid Sindi, all contain "Abdullah bin Umar." This is supported by what Munziri reported, that some mentioned that Abu Dawud narrated it from the hadith of Abdullah bin Umar.The text of Abbas bin Jalid's biography in Tarikh al-Kabir reads, "He is counted among the Egyptians, narrating from Ibn Umar and Abu Darda. Abu Hani Humayd narrated from him. Some said 'Ibn Khalid,' but that is a mistake. He heard from Abdullah bin Amr bin As, 'A man said to the Prophet ﷺ, "How many times should the servant be forgiven?" He said, "Forgive him seventy times."' And from the Prophet ﷺ, 'Jibreel kept advising me about the neighbor until I feared he would make him an heir.' Asbagh told me, from Ibn Wahb, who said, 'Abu Hani informed me, from Abbas bin Jalid Hajari.' Some said, 'Abdullah bin Umar.' Some said, 'from Ibn Wahb, who narrated to us, Abu Hani narrated to us, from Abbas, from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet,' regarding forgiveness. And Muqri narrated to us, Saeed narrated to us, Abu Hani narrated to us, from Abbas Hajari, from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet, similarly, regarding forgiveness. It is a hadith with something questionable in it."So this last chain in Tarikh al-Kabir is the same chain found here in Musnad, from Abdullah bin Yazid Muqri, from Saeed bin Abu Ayub, from Abu Hani. Bukhari narrated it from Muqri, just as Ahmad narrated it from him. This is the sound version of this hadith, that it comes from the hadith of Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab.This is supported by Abu Dawud's narration in most of the sound copies, and by Tirmidhi's narration of it from Qutayba bin Saeed, from Rushdin bin Saad, and from Abdullah bin Wahb, both of them from Abu Hani, from Abbas, from Abdullah bin Umar, meaning Ibn Khattab. It is further supported by Bukhari's account in his Tarikh that some narrated it from Ibn Wahb and attributed it to the hadith of Abdullah bin Umar.It gains further support and confirmation from the fact that Ahmad recorded it in Musnad here in the musnad of Abdullah bin Umar, and never narrated it in the musnad of Abdullah bin Amr bin As. It gains even more support from the fact that Ahmad narrated it another time in the musnad of Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab, at 5899, from Musa bin Dawud, from Ibn Lahia, from Humayd bin Hani, from Abbas, from Ibn Umar.From this I believe that whoever narrated it from Ibn Wahb and attributed it to the hadith of Ibn As either made a mistake or was confused in writing, and that some copyists of Sunan Abu Dawud also erred and wrote it as Abdullah bin Amr, as happened to Munziri in what he heard. This is thus an anomalous narration that contradicts the sound copies and the established narrations.That is why Tirmidhi favored the narration of whoever narrated it from Ibn Wahb and attributed it to the hadith of Ibn Umar, narrating it with its chain, then merely alluding to the narration of whoever narrated it from Ibn Wahb and attributed it to the hadith of Abdullah bin Amr. Bukhari appears to have hesitated and considered the hadith questionable because of this discrepancy.Then it became clear to us upon investigation where the error lay among some of the narrators from Ibn Wahb, including Asbagh, from whom Bukhari narrated it, from Ibn Wahb, and it was confirmed to us that the isnad is sahih. Praise be to Allah.As for this hadith, given that it appears in Musnad, and that Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi narrated it in abbreviated form, as you can see, Hafiz Haythami mentioned it in Zawaid, 4:238, in a manner similar to Ahmad's narration, and said, "Tirmidhi narrated it in abbreviated form," then said, "Abu Yaala narrated it, and its narrators are trustworthy." He thus fell short by not attributing it to Musnad, and also fell short in attributing the abbreviated narration to Tirmidhi alone.Khadim (servant) is the singular of khadam, and applies to both male and female, since it follows the pattern of nouns not derived from verbs, like haid (menstruating woman) and atiq (young woman), as Ibn Athir stated. Its meaning originally encompasses both the slave and the hired worker, but when used without qualification, it is more commonly used for the slave in most usage. Here, the intended meaning, according to most usage, is the slave.This, then, is what you see in the Messenger of Allah's ﷺ instruction to Muslims regarding the treatment of servants and kindness toward them. The early Muslims used to conduct themselves according to this instruction, except for those among them who erred or were ignorant. Slaves were a great blessing from among Allah's blessings upon them, indeed a blessing upon the slaves themselves. Then success eluded them, and they violated the command of Allah and His Messenger, growing harsh toward slaves, subjecting them to violence, and becoming ungrateful for Allah's blessing. So Allah empowered their enemy over them, from among the hard-hearted savages, the inheritors of atheistic paganism, who claimed they were liberating slaves, only to enslave free, weakened, humiliated nations!Then people continued to have an unending need for servants, so they employed hired workers, and harsh, false modern civilization dominated them. They ended up treating hired workers worse than they had treated slaves, and with harsher abuse, fearing not Allah but rather the foreign law imposed upon them. This was not a remedy but rather had a worse effect, given the natural human tendency toward injustice and tyranny, and given the leniency of those enforcing the law in favoring the oppressive class over the oppressed class.We have even witnessed in our era incidents that make the skin crawl and the soul recoil. Let us cite one example that may suffice in place of all others. Not long ago, a case was brought before the Egyptian civilian judiciary involving a Coptic woman who had hired two young servants. She was so hard-hearted and tyrannical that she never stopped torturing them with every kind of torment, even burning them with fire, until both servants died after having returned to their families. The astonishing thing, utterly astonishing, was that the criminal court sentenced her to only one year in prison with suspended execution, on grounds even more astonishing than the ruling itself, revealing a mentality I cannot describe, namely that this savage criminal woman was elderly and from a respectable family!Here is another strange example, unrelated to cases of torture, but revealing the mentality of the class called "upper class" in our country, whose only elevation lies in arrogance and superiority over their own nation, coupled with servility and abasement before their foreign masters! A woman from the class of ministers' wives gathered a group of women like herself in her house, while the Egyptian press was overflowing with the deception that women and the slaves of women call "women's right to vote." This woman looked at her Nubian servant and was astonished, along with those around her, that this slave should have the right to vote when she did not, she being the educated, cultured woman who danced with ministers, dignitaries, and foreigners! Yet this man was not a slave to her, nor to her father, nor to her husband, but rather belonged to a group known for integrity and dignity, the group of trustworthy Nubians. I am confident that had this slave heard what she said, he would have known how to discipline her and discipline the women around her, indeed he would have known how to discipline her husband, the formidable minister!I do not believe that people like these are Muslims, even if they were born on Islamic bedding and their fathers named them with Muslim names. That is because they are humble toward believers and mighty toward disbelievers, whereas Allah, glorified is He, describes believers as "humble toward believers, mighty toward disbelievers" [Maidah 5:54]. That is because Muslims are those who obey the command of Allah and the command of His Messenger, and forgive the servant, if he errs and wrongs them, seventy times every day.