Ahmad 6616

Its chain of transmission is daif, due to the weakness of Rushdin bin Saad, but it is sahih li-ghayrihi, as we will explain in the source-referencing section, Allah willing.Thawba bin Numayr bin Harmal Hadrami, Abu Mihjan Misri, is trustworthy. Bukhari included his biography in al-Kabir 1/2/156, and pointed to this hadith. Al-Hafiz also included his biography in al-Tajil. Daraqutni said, he combined the judgeship and the office of storyteller in Egypt, and he was virtuous and devout. He died in the year 120. Accounts of his tenure as judge in Egypt appear in Futuh Misr by Ibn Abdul-Hakam (p. 240), and in Qudat Misr by Kindi (334, 342–347).Kindi related, with his chain of transmission going back to Ibn Lahia, who said, the first judge in Egypt to place his hand on the religious endowments was Thawba bin Numayr, in the time of Hisham. Before that, the endowments had remained in the hands of their families, and in the hands of their guardians. When Thawba came, he said, "I see that the ultimate destination of these charitable endowments is none other than the poor and the needy, so I think I should take charge of them myself, to protect them from being twisted from their purpose or passed down as inheritance." Thawba did not die until the endowments had become a great administrative department.This is a significant historical point, showing that this judge was the first to establish a general department for private religious endowments, so that they would fall under the judge's oversight, both to protect them from being wrongfully seized through usurpation or the like, and also to protect them from being treated as inheritance, since the ultimate destination of every private endowment was meant to be a charitable cause that never ceases, ending finally with the poor and the needy ﷺ. May his reward be multiplied for what he did.Abu Ufayr, the chief of Bani Sarih, is trustworthy. Ibn Hibban affirmed his trustworthiness, as al-Hafiz mentioned in his biography in al-Tajil, 286, in the section on notable figures, under the name Arif bin Sarih, Abu Ufayr. We have added the word "Ufayr" from the margin of manuscript M, though it is not mentioned in manuscript Kh. In manuscript K it appears as "Abu Ufayr bin Sarih," mentioning him by his kunya without his given name. Bukhari included his biography in al-Kuna (no. 559) in this way, "Abu Ufayr, the chief of Bani Sarih," and mentioned him the same way in al-Kabir, in the biography of Thawba bin Numayr, saying, "He heard from Abu Ufayr, the chief of Bani Sarih." It seems this is the form in which he came across him. It may be that "chief" here is a descriptive title rather than a proper name, meaning he was the chief of a clan or tribe. However, I have preferred the view that his name was Arif bin Sarih, based on what I have described from the manuscripts of al-Musnad, and on the fact that in Majma al-Zawaid, as we have established, it reads, "from Ibn Ufayr, chief of bin Sarih." Also, I have not found among the references available to me any clan or tribe known as Bani Sarih.The hadith appears in Majma al-Zawaid, 166, where it is stated, "Ahmad related it, and among its narrators is Rushdin bin Saad, who is daif, though he has also been deemed trustworthy." However, Rushdin was not alone in narrating it. Bukhari also related it in al-Kabir, in the biography of Thawba bin Numayr, with his well-known brief indication, saying, "Ahmad told me, Ibn Wahb related to us, Amr informed me, he heard from Thawba bin Numayr, who heard from Abu Ufayr, chief of Bani Sarih, from Abdullah bin Amr, that Umar donated a horse in the cause of Allah. The Prophet ﷺ then said, "When you give something in charity, carry it through to completion." This came through a chain other than this one.The story of Umar and the horse that he had donated in the cause of Allah, and then wished to buy back, has already come up several times in the Musnad of Umar (nos. 166, 258, 281), and in the Musnad of his son, Abdullah bin Umar, most recently at 5796.I believe that Abdullah bin Amr, by his question, intended a form of noble restraint and scrupulous piety, for there is a vast difference between a charitable gift returning to its original owner as an inheritance he has no choice over, and his purchasing it back as though his own soul were yearning for it.There will also come, from the hadith of Abdullah bin Amr himself, in a similar case involving inheritance, at 6731, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to a man, "Your charity has been accepted, and your orchard has been returned to you."