Ahmad 5721

Its isnad is sahih. Abdullah bin Yazid, who is al-Muqri, the teacher of Ahmad, his kunya is Abu Abdul-Rahman, but the word "Abu" was dropped from H due to a printing error, so we added it back from K and M, and from what we were certain was correct. Haywa is Ibn Shurayh. Abu Uthman Walid is Walid bin Abu Walid Uthman, the freedman of Abdullah bin Umar.Bukhari said in Tarikh al-Kabir 4/2/156, number 2546, "He heard from Abdullah bin Umar." Abdullah bin Yusuf told us, "Layth narrated to us, he said, 'Walid bin Abu Walid Abu Uthman narrated to us, and he was a virtuous man from the people of Madinah.'"Hafiz quoted in Tahdhib 11:157, from Thiqat Ibn Hibban, something indicating that he distinguished between Walid bin Abu Walid, the freedman of Ibn Umar, who narrated from Ibn Umar and from whom Haywa and Layth narrated, and Walid bin Abu Walid, the freedman of Uthman bin Affan, who narrated from Abdullah bin Dinar and from whom Haywa narrated. We have not quoted here the exact text of Tahdhib, because it appears in the printed edition distorted and incomplete, and we have determined its correct and complete form from what we will now mention from Bukhari. For he gave three biographical entries for Walid, the one we mentioned, and before it an entry numbered 2545, whose text is, "Walid bin Abu Walid, the freedman of Uthman bin Affan, the Umawi Qurashi," adding nothing more. The third, on page 158, number 2554, states, "Walid, he heard from Uthman bin Affan, Bukayr bin Ashaj narrated from him." The editor of Tarikh al-Kabir quoted, from the margin of one of its manuscript copies at this point, from Khatib Baghdadi Abu Bakr bin Thabit, who said, "Walid, from whom Bukayr bin Ashaj narrated, is Walid bin Abu Walid Abu Uthman, the Madani Qurashi, the freedman of Abdullah bin Umar, and no one else, except that he did not hear anything from Uthman bin Affan nor did he ever meet him."I think Bukhari meant to say, "He heard from Uthman bin Abdullah bin Suraqa," for Walid narrated a hadith from him. I say, what Khatib said is plausible, for Walid's narration from Uthman bin Abdullah bin Suraqa has already appeared in the Musnad, 126, via Ibn Hadi from Walid from the aforementioned Uthman. But what seems more likely to me is that Bukhari meant that he saw Uthman bin Amr bin Jamuh Ansari, for Dulabi narrated in Kuna 2:38, via Haywa bin Shurayh, who said, "Abu Uthman Walid bin Walid bin Abu Walid narrated to us, he said, 'I saw the hair of Uthman bin Amr bin Jamuh Ansari, of Banu Salama, a companion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, dyed yellow, and I saw that he had made the hair of his head into two braids.'"I have given preference to this account because it points to Walid being a tabii, and scholars were keen on elevating the isnad, even though his status as a tabii is established by Bukhari's own text in entry 2546, where it states that he heard from Abdullah bin Umar. But Bukhari supposed them to be three different men, as we mentioned. What seems more likely to me, though, is that the three entries all refer to one man. In any case, the isnad is sahih.The hadith has already appeared in abbreviated form at 5612, via Ibn Hadi from Abdullah bin Dinar, and it appeared at length within a longer account at 5653, also via Ibn Hadi from Ibn Dinar. We have noted Muslim's narration of it via Ibn Hadi. We add here that Muslim also narrated it, 2:277, in a similar account, via Saeed bin Abu Ayub from Walid bin Abu Walid from Abdullah bin Dinar.