Ahmad 6512

Its isnad is sahih. Sufyan is Thawri. Mansur is Ibn Al-Mutamir. Hilal bin Yasaf, with the ya vowelled as kasrah, as we explained at 1630, though Isaf with a hamzah instead of the ya in place of it is also permissible, and some have reported that fatha is permissible in both. Abu Yahya is Araj. Another hadith, 2921, has already passed on the authority of Abu Yahya, the freedman of Ibn Aqeel Ansari, and we mentioned there that he is Muarqab, that his name is Musaddi, and we quoted from Tahdheeb that he was the freedman of Abdullah bin Amr, also said to be the freedman of Muaz bin Afra, and that Bukhari quoted in Tarikh al-Kabir from Ahmad bin Hanbal that he said, he is the freedman of Muaz bin Afra, and he is Araj.What appears to me, and what I consider more likely, is that these are two biographies that have been conflated, and that they are in fact two men. One of them is that freedman of the Ansar, attributed on one occasion to being the freedman of Ibn Aqeel Ansari as in that isnad, and described by Ahmad as the freedman of Muaz bin Afra. This Muaz is also Ansari, being Muaz bin Harith bin Rifa Najari Ansari Khazraji, attributed to his mother Afra. The other is the freedman of Abdullah bin Amr, and this one is not attributed as Ansari but rather as Qurayshi by clientage. Perhaps each of them was also described as Araj. Anyone who reads the biography of Musaddi in Tahdheeb 10:157-158 and reflects on it carefully will scarcely doubt that they are two different men.This is supported by the fact that Bukhari, with his well-known precision, distinguished between them. In Kabir 4/2/65 he wrote a biography saying, Musaddi Abu Yahya Muaddib Ansari, narrated from Ayesha and Ibn Abbas, attributed by Muhammad bin Dinar from Saad bin Aws. Ibn Hanbal said, he is the freedman of Muaz bin Afra, and he is Araj. Then he gave another biography under the kunyas (number 793) saying, Abu Yahya, from Abdullah bin Amr, narrated from him by Hilal bin Yasaf. Perhaps this provides support for concluding that they are two men, if not for certainty about it.Muslim narrated the hadith with similar wording, 1:204, through the route of Jareer from Mansur, then through the route of Shuba and Sufyan, both from Mansur, and he said, in the narration of Shuba, from Abu Yahya Araj. It will also come in Musnad through the narration of Shuba, 6803, 6883, and through the narration of Sufyan, 6894, and from another route, 6808. Tayalisi narrated it, 2289, from Shuba. Abu Awana narrated it in his Mustakhraj, 2:220-221, through the route of Tayalisi, and he also narrated it through the route of Sufyan from Mansur. Abu Dawud narrated it, 950:1(358-359), through the route of Jareer from Mansur. Nasai narrated it, 1:245, through the route of Sufyan from Mansur, with similar wording. Ibn Majah also narrated it with similar wording, 1:191, from another route. Hafiz referred to it in Fath al-Bari, 2:482, and attributed it to Muslim, Abu Dawud, and Nasai.As for his saying, "Indeed I am not like you," this is how it is recorded in H and M, and it has a grammatical explanation, namely that the noun of laysa is omitted, as though he said, "Indeed my situation is not like your situation," or that it comes on the consideration that laysa is a particle rather than a defective verb, which is the view of some grammar scholars. In K it reads "lastu," as in the rest of the narrations, and this is the plain reading.This ruling, that the prayer of one sitting counts as half the prayer of one standing, applies only to voluntary prayers when one is able to stand, as is evident. As for obligatory prayer, if one who is able to stand prays sitting, it is invalid, and if one is unable to stand, then sitting becomes his obligation in place of standing, so his reward is not diminished by it. Likewise for one who prays a voluntary prayer sitting due to inability to stand. Allah singled out His Messenger ﷺ with the distinction that his reward for voluntary prayer performed sitting is not diminished, as an honor and distinction for him ﷺ, as indicated by his saying, "Indeed I am not like you."