Ahmad 6510

Its isnad is sahih. Ubaydullah bin Akhnas and Walid bin Abdullah bin Abu Mughith, their reliability was established previously.Yusuf bin Mahak, his reliability was noted previously at 1710, and we add here that Ibn Main and Nasai confirmed his reliability, and Ibn Khirash said, "Reliable and just." Bukhari gave his biography in Tarikh al-Kabir 4/2/275.The hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud (3646, 3:356), Darimi (1:125), Hakim (1:105-106), and Ibn Abdul-Barr in his book Jami Bayan Ilm wa Fadlih (1:71), all of them through Yahya bin Saeed Qattan, with this isnad. It will come again with the same isnad at 6802, and its meaning will come abridged with two other chains at 7018 and 7020.Hafiz mentioned it in Fath al-Bari (1:185), attributing it to Ahmad and Abu Dawud, and said, "These are other routes from Abdullah bin Amr, each strengthening the other."Hakim said, "The narrators of this hadith were all relied upon by them [meaning the two Shaykhs] to the very last one, except this Walid, whom I take to be Walid bin Abu Walid Shami, for he is Walid bin Abdullah... If that is so, then Muslim relied upon him." Dhahabi agreed with him.I fear this is an error on Hakim's part, which Dhahabi followed him in!First, Walid bin Abdullah here is Walid bin Abdullah bin Abu Mughith, as is established in Abu Dawud's narration, where his full lineage is given.Second, I have not found among the narrators any Walid bin Abu Walid Shami at all, let alone one who is among the narrators in Sahih Muslim. For Walid bin Abu Walid, from whom Muslim narrated, is the Qurashi, freed slave of Umar, or as some say, freed slave of Uthman, and he is a Madinan, not a Shami, and his father Abu Walid's name is Uthman, not Abdullah! So how could what Hakim said be correct!?See the detailed biography of Walid bin Abu Walid at 5721.Ibn Qayyim said in his commentary on Munziri's abridgment of Sunan Abu Dawud (5:245-246),It is established as sahih from the Prophet ﷺ both the prohibition of writing and permission for it. The permission came later, so it abrogates the hadith of prohibition, for the Prophet ﷺ said during the campaign of the Conquest, "Write for Abu Shah." That is, his sermon which Abu Shah asked to have written down. And he permitted Abdullah bin Amr to write, and his hadith comes later than the prohibition, because he continued writing, and died with his writing still with him, which was the document he used to call al-Sadiqah.If the prohibition of writing had come later, Abdullah would have erased it, in obedience to the Prophet's ﷺ command to erase anything written from him besides the Quran. Since he did not order it erased, but rather kept and confirmed it, this shows that the permission to write came after the prohibition of it. This is clear, and praise be to Allah.It is also established as sahih from the Prophet ﷺ that he said to them during his fatal illness, "Bring me the tablet, the inkwell, and the shoulder bone, that I may write for you something after which you will never go astray." This would only be writing his words by his command and permission.The Prophet ﷺ wrote for Amr bin Hazm a great document, containing the blood-money rulings, the obligations of zakat, and other matters. His writings concerning charitable dues are well known, such as the document of Umar bin Khattab, and the document of Abu Bakr Siddiq which he handed to Anas, ﷺ.Ali was asked, "Did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ single you out with anything special?" He said, "No, by Him who split the grain and created the soul, except what is in this document." And in it were the blood-money rulings, the ransom of captives, and that no Muslim is to be killed for a disbeliever.The Prophet ﷺ only prohibited writing anything besides the Quran at the beginning of Islam, so that the Quran would not be mixed with anything else. Once the Quran became known and distinguished, and was set apart through precise recording and memorization, and the danger of confusion was removed, he permitted writing.Some scholars said the prohibition applied only to a specific kind of writing, namely combining the writing of hadith and Quran together on a single page, out of fear of confusion. And some of the early generations disliked writing altogether. Some permitted it only until something was memorized, and once memorized, it was erased.Consensus was eventually reached on the permissibility of writing and preserving it. Had it not been for writing, only the very least portion of the sunnah would be in our hands today.