Ahmad 7197

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Abdul-Wahhab Thaqafi is Abdul-Wahhab bin Abdul-Majid, whose reliability was established earlier at 1616, and it should be added here that Bukhari gave his biography in al-Saghir, page 218, Ibn Saad in al-Tabaqat 7/2/44, and Ibn Abu Hatim in al-Jarh wal-Tadil 3/1/71. Khalid is Ibn Mihran Haddan. Muhammad is Ibn Sirin.This hadith was narrated by Bukhari, 6:251, through the route of Wahib from Khalid Haddan. Muslim narrated it, 2:292, through the route of Abdul-Wahhab Thaqafi, the teacher of Ahmad here, with this same chain, and then narrated it through the route of Hisham, who is Ibn Hassan, from Ibn Sirin, in similar wording.The word "al-far" (mouse/rat) is found in many copies of al-Yuniniyyah without the hamza, as noted in the margin of the Sultaniyyah edition, 4:128. However, al-Hafiz vowelled it with a still hamza, and Qastallani followed him in this. In al-Misbah it says, "al-farah" may or may not take a hamza, and it applies to both the male and female, with the plural being "far," like "tamrah" and "tamr." It seems to me that its original form is without the hamza, for in al-Lisan it says that the tribe of Aqeel would place a hamza on "al-farah," "al-jawnah," "al-musa," and "al-hut."As for Abu Hurairah's statement at the end of the hadith, "aqra al-Tawrah" (I read the Torah), this is how it appears in all three of the original manuscripts here, written with the letter ta clearly dotted, but this does not make coherent sense with the context. Perhaps the correct reading is with a nun, meaning "I read" (referring to himself), and this is supported by the fact that Muslim's version, through the route of Abdul-Wahhab Thaqafi, has "a-aqra al-Tawrah" (do I read the Torah?), while his version through the route of Hisham bin Hassan has "a-unzilat alayya al-Tawrah" (was the Torah revealed to me?). Bukhari's version has "a-fa-aqra al-Tawrah" (do I then read the Torah?). Al-Hafiz said, "This is a rhetorical question of denial." It shows that Abu Hurairah did not take his knowledge from the People of the Book, and that when a companion who is known not to do so reports something in which there is no room for personal opinion or independent reasoning, the hadith takes the status of being directly attributed to the Prophet.Kaab's silence, and his not responding to Abu Hurairah, indicates his scrupulousness. It seems that neither of them had heard the hadith of Ibn Masud, who said, "The apes and pigs were mentioned in the presence of the Prophet , and he said, 'Allah did not give any transformed creature (of those He transformed into other forms) offspring or descendants, and the apes and pigs already existed before that.'" Abu Hurairah's statement, "I only think it is the mouse," should be understood in this light. It seems he had thought so, then was informed that it was not the case.The hadith of Ibn Masud, which al-Hafiz referred to, is a sahih hadith, narrated by Muslim, 2:303. It has already appeared several times in his musnad, at 3700, 3925, 4119, 4120, 4254, and 4441. What al-Hafiz said in interpreting this hadith is valuable and precise.