Ahmad 7270

Its isnad is sahih! Ibn Akayma is Umara bin Akayma Laythi, then Jundai, Madani. He is a trustworthy tabii, mentioned by Ibn Hibban in al-Thiqat. Ibn Saad said in al-Tabaqat 5:185 that he died in the year 101 at the age of 79. He narrated from Abu Hurairah, and Zuhri narrated from him a single hadith. Some scholars do not accept him as reliable, saying he is an unknown shaykh. Ibn Abu Hatim mentioned in al-Jarh wal-Tadil 3/1/362 that he asked his father about him, and his father said, "His hadith is sahih, his hadith is accepted." Yahya bin Main said, likewise Zuhri's statement, "I heard Ibn Akayma narrating to Saeed bin Musayab." By this he means that Saeed bin Musayab, who was among the senior tabiin and among the people most knowledgeable about the hadith of Abu Hurairah, accepted this hadith from Ibn Akayma and heard it from him in the presence of his student Ibn Shihab Zuhri. It is also sufficient evidence that Malik narrated the hadith from Zuhri, as will appear in the sourcing. Malik was among the people most knowledgeable about the people of Madinah, about critiquing their narrations, and about distinguishing the trustworthy among them from the untrustworthy.There has been disagreement about the name of this Ibn Akayma. The correct view is that it is Umara, and this is the only name given by Ibn Saad and Ibn Abu Hatim. Muslim mentioned him in Kitab al-Mufradat wal-Wuhdan, page 11, among those from whom Zuhri alone narrated, saying, "And Ibn Akayma Laythi, said to be named Umara." He did not mention the other opinions.Akayma is with the hamza vocalized with damma, in diminutive form. Jundai is with the jim vocalized with damma, the nun silent, and the plain dal vocalized with either fatha or damma. Ibn Durayd said in al-Ishtiqaq, page 101, "The Banu Jundai bin Layth, it is said Jundu and Jundaa, singular of Janadi. The Janadi are small beetles seen near the burrows of lizards and the hiding places of snakes." Khalil said, "When the second letter of a name follows the pattern faalal with a nun or hamza, you have the choice between fatha and damma, as in Jundab and Jundab, and Jundai and Jundai." Samaani stated explicitly in al-Ansab, and Ibn Athir in al-Lubab, that Jundai is a clan of Layth bin Bakr bin Abdu Manat bin Kinana.The editor of al-Tahdhib 7:410 made an error, writing it as al-Khandai, and vocalizing it in the footnote, citing al-Qamus, as being on the pattern of Jafar with a ba between two dotted letters, and that it is the father of a tribe from Hamdan, being Ibn Malik bin Dhi Bariq. This is an error compounding an error, for Ibn Akayma is unquestionably Laythi, whereas al-Khandai would be Hamdani and then Bariqi. What relation does one have to the other? The author of al-Qamus also erred in vocalizing al-Khandaa on the pattern of Jafar. The correct vocalization is with kasra on the dotted kha. Samaani stated this explicitly in al-Ansab, as did Ibn Athir in al-Lubab, and Dhahabi vocalized it likewise in al-Mushtabih, page 120.As for the wording in the isnad, "from Zuhri, he heard Ibn Akayma narrating to Saeed bin Musayab," this is the correct wording. That is, Zuhri was present at the gathering of Saeed bin Musayab when Ibn Akayma narrated this hadith to him from Abu Hurairah. So the hadith is Ibn Akayma's hadith from Abu Hurairah directly, heard from him by both Saeed bin Musayab and Zuhri, and Zuhri related that. All the narrations of this hadith that we will mention agree on this, that it is from Zuhri from Ibn Akayma from Abu Hurairah. This is what is indicated by the praise of Ibn Main, which we quoted earlier, for Ibn Akayma, "Likewise Zuhri's statement, 'I heard Ibn Akayma narrating to Saeed bin Musayab.'"In the three copies of the Musnad here it occurs as "narrating from Saeed bin Musayab," with the addition of "from," which gives the misleading impression that Zuhri heard it from Ibn Akayma from Ibn Musayab. This is a clear error, for the reasons we mentioned. It appears correctly in the old manuscript designated saad, which is a fragment of the Musnad containing the Musnad of Abu Hurairah, which we described in volume 1, page 519.The hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud 1-827, 306 of Awn al-Mabud, from Musaddad, Ahmad bin Muhammad Marwazi, Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Abu Khalaf, Abdullah bin Muhammad Zuhri, and Ibn Sarh, all of them from Ibn Uyayna from Zuhri, who said, "I heard Ibn Akayma narrating to Saeed bin Musayab," and he related it similarly. Abu Dawud then said, "Musaddad said in his version, 'Mamar said, "So the people stopped reciting during what the Messenger of Allah recited aloud."'" Ibn Sarh said in his version, "Mamar said, from Zuhri, 'Abu Hurairah said, "So the people stopped."'" Abdullah bin Muhammad Zuhri, among them, said, "Sufyan said, 'Zuhri said a word that I did not hear, and Mamar said that he said, "So the people stopped."'"Bayhaqi narrated it 1:157-158 through the route of Abu Dawud with these chains, and through the route of Ali bin Madini, "Sufyan narrated to us, Zuhri narrated to us, I memorized it from his mouth," and so on. At the end he said, "Ali bin Madini said, 'Sufyan said, "Then Zuhri said something that I did not memorize, my memory ends here,"'" meaning up to his statement, "Why should I be contended with over the Quran?" "And Mamar said, from Zuhri, 'So the people stopped reciting during what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited aloud.'" Ali, meaning Ibn Madini, said, "Sufyan said to us one day, 'I looked into something I had, and it was, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led us in the dawn prayer," without doubt.'"Ibn Majah narrated it 1:144-145 from Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba and Hisham bin Ammar, both of them from Ibn Uyayna, with this, and he did not mention Mamar's statement. He then narrated it right after from Jameel bin Hasan from Abdul-Ala from Mamar from Zuhri, with this isnad, and related it similarly, adding in it, "He said, 'So they fell silent afterward during what the imam recited aloud.'"The sum of these narrations explains this isnad and removes the ambiguity in it for anyone who has not practiced the craft of hadith. First, Ibn Madini's statement about Sufyan, that he looked into something he had, indicates that the doubt in his statement "he thought it was the dawn prayer" belongs to Sufyan, who then found in his book a definite statement that it was the dawn prayer, which removes this doubt. Second, it indicates that his statement at the end of the isnad, "Mamar said, from Zuhri," and so on, is Sufyan's own statement. When he and Mamar heard the hadith from Zuhri, he did not hear its ending, which is the statement "So the people stopped." This word was hidden from him, as he himself said, so Mamar, who had heard it, informed him of it. Sufyan did not want to attribute it to himself by concealing this and narrating it directly from Zuhri when he had not heard it from him, so he stated that he heard it from Mamar from Zuhri, connected to the hadith.Likewise, narrators other than Sufyan who narrated from Mamar related this word connected to the hadith, not separated from it, as Ibn Sarh, the teacher of Abu Dawud, made explicit when he narrated it from Ibn Uyayna, relating from him that he said, "Mamar said, from Zuhri, 'Abu Hurairah said, "So the people stopped."'" This means that Mamar told Sufyan this word at Zuhri's gathering, since Sufyan had not heard it. So it is connected to the isnad itself, not separated from it as Zuhri's own words, as some people mistakenly suppose, nor is it disconnected by Zuhri narrating from Abu Hurairah, since Mamar told it to Sufyan at the gathering where it was heard.Likewise, Abdul-Ala connected it to the hadith from Mamar, as we mentioned in Ibn Majah's narration. Likewise, Abdul-Razzaq connected it from Mamar from Zuhri, with this isnad, as will come in the Musnad, 7806. Likewise, the imam Malik connected it from Zuhri, narrating the hadith in Muwatta, page 86-87, from Zuhri, with this isnad, its ending being as follows, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'I say, why should I be contended with over the Quran?' So the people stopped reciting along with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited aloud, when they heard that from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.'" There is no doubt that this wording is explicit that this final phrase is part of the original hadith, neither inserted nor separated.The leading, meticulous scholars narrated it in this manner through Malik's route. Ahmad narrated it, as will come at 7994, from Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi from Malik. Likewise Abu Dawud narrated it, 826-1, 305-306 of Awn al-Mabud, from Qanabi. Tirmidhi narrated it 1:254-255 from Ansari from Maen. Nasai narrated it 1:146 from Qutayba. Bayhaqi narrated it 2:157 through the route of Ismail bin Ishaq Qadi, and through the route of Abu Dawud, both of them from Qanabi, all of them from Malik from Zuhri, with it.These are the most reliable narrators from Zuhri, Malik, then Mamar, then Ibn Uyayna, and they narrated it connected from Zuhri. So who comes after them? Harb said, "I said to Ahmad, 'Is Malik's hadith from Zuhri better, or Ibn Uyayna's?' He said, 'Malik.' I said, 'What about Mamar?' He gave preference to Malik, except that Mamar was older." Abdullah bin Ahmad said, "I said to my father, 'Who is the most reliable of Zuhri's companions?' He said, 'Malik is the most reliable in everything.'" Hasan bin Husayn Razi said, "I asked Ibn Main, 'Who is the most reliable of Zuhri's companions?' He said, 'Malik.' I said, 'Then who?' He said, 'Mamar.'"As for Ibn Uyayna, in this narration, it is as though he heard the word from Zuhri, because even though it was hidden from him in Zuhri's own wording, Mamar informed him of it in the very same gathering, so it is as if it were repeated from the shaykh's own wording, since that occurred in his presence. Yunus and Usama bin Zayd also followed them in this. Abu Dawud said, after narrating the route of Malik, "This hadith of Ibn Akayma was narrated by Mamar, Yunus, and Usama bin Zayd from Zuhri, in the sense of Malik's version."But the account of Ibn Uyayna, in which Mamar mentioned this word to him, caused some scholars to suspect that it might be a word inserted into the hadith from Zuhri's own speech, especially since some narrators mentioned it in wording that gives that impression, when they said, "Zuhri said," whereas the intended meaning is clear, that Mamar was informing Sufyan of Zuhri's statement connected to the hadith, whose hearing in the gathering had been hidden from Sufyan, not that he meant this speech to be independent and separated from the hadith. Evidence of that is that Mamar's own narration, apart from Sufyan's route, does not contain this separation between the two statements. And Ibn Sarh's narration, which Abu Dawud related, contains explicit, decisive wording negating any such interpretation, for he said, "Mamar said, from Zuhri, 'Abu Hurairah said, "So the people stopped."'"Those who cling to this doubt add further, that Ibn Jurayj and Abdul-Rahman bin Ishaq narrated it from Zuhri without mentioning this final phrase, their hadith ending at his statement, "Why should I be contended with over the Quran?" The narration of Ibn Jurayj will come at 7820, and the narration of Abdul-Rahman bin Ishaq at 10323. But this contains nothing that would discredit the narrations of Malik, Mamar, and Sufyan from Mamar at Zuhri's gathering, for the three are trustworthy imams, and an addition from a trustworthy narrator is accepted.But later scholars clung to statements of some earlier scholars without proof or evidence. Among the statements of the earlier scholars is what Abu Dawud said after narrating the hadith through the two routes, "Uzai narrated it from Zuhri, saying in it, 'Zuhri said, "So the Muslims took this as a matter of great weight, and thereafter they would not recite along with him during what he recited aloud."'" So the phrase "So the people stopped" is from Zuhri's own words! Tirmidhi said after narrating the hadith, "Some of Zuhri's companions narrated this hadith and mentioned this phrase, saying, 'Zuhri said, "So the people stopped reciting when they heard that from the Messenger of Allah."'"Hafiz quoted in al-Talkhis, page 87, from Bukhari that he held, in Kitab al-Tarikh, that this phrase is inserted, being from Zuhri's own speech. The section containing the biography of Ibn Akayma from Tarikh al-Kabir has not been printed. But Bukhari's statement was narrated by Bayhaqi with his isnad to him, 2:158, that he said, "This speech is from Zuhri's own words."The narration of Uzai, which Abu Dawud referred to, was narrated by Bayhaqi, 2:158, through the route of Walid bin Muzayd from Uzai, "Zuhri narrated to me from Saeed bin Musayab, that he heard Abu Hurairah," and he related the hadith, saying at its end, "Zuhri said, 'So the Muslims took heed from that, and thereafter they would not recite.'" There is no doubt that this narration is an error, either from Uzai or from whoever narrated from him. But Bayhaqi, may Allah forgive him, saw no problem in treating it as an error regarding the isnad while treating it as correct regarding the matter he wished to establish from it about the insertion, saying, "Uzai preserved the fact that this speech is Zuhri's own words, separating it from the hadith, except that he did not preserve its isnad. The correct version is what Ibn Uyayna narrated from Zuhri, who said, 'I heard Ibn Akayma narrating to Saeed bin Musayab.'"I myself remain astonished at this claim of insertion, for insertion means that a narrator mentions speech of his own or of someone else and inserts it into the wording of the hadith. Is this the case here? Certainly not. This, if what they claim were correct, would amount to a narration of the first part of the hadith with a connected isnad, then a narration of its latter part with a disconnected isnad, because if it were Zuhri's own speech, its meaning would be that Zuhri is relating about this incident that the people afterward stopped reciting behind the Messenger of Allah during what he recited aloud. So this portion of the hadith, if what they claim were correct, would be narrated from Zuhri as disconnected, while being narrated from him through other routes as connected, and the connection is an addition from a trustworthy narrator, indeed from trustworthy narrators, so it is certainly accepted, especially if we go by preference, giving preference to the narration of Malik and those with him. This is self-evident and beyond doubt.All that drove them to this forced and strained interpretation was their assumption that this phrase contradicts the position of those who held that reciting al-Fatihah is obligatory upon the one following the imam absolutely, whether the imam recites silently or aloud. By Allah, Tirmidhi did not accept this justification for the addition, and did not see in it anything negating the obligation of recitation upon the one following the imam, for he said, "There is nothing in this hadith indicating anything against the view of those who held that recitation should occur behind the imam, because Abu Hurairah is the one who narrated this hadith from the Prophet, and Abu Hurairah also narrated from the Prophet that he said, 'Whoever performs a prayer in which he does not recite the Mother of the Quran, it is deficient, it is deficient, incomplete.' The one who carried this hadith said to him, 'Sometimes I am behind the imam.' He said, 'Recite it to yourself.'" Abu Uthman Nahdi narrated from Abu Hurairah, who said, "The Prophet ordered me to announce, 'There is no prayer without the recitation of the Opening Chapter of the Book.'" This is speech at the very peak of scholarly precision.As for his statement, "Why should I be contended with over the Quran," with fatha on the zay, in the passive voice, meaning "why should I be pulled at during my recitation," since the man recited aloud behind him, distracting him from his own recitation, from the root meaning "pulling" or "tugging."