Ahmad 7361

Its isnad is sahih. It is also a narration from Sufyan, from Ibn Ajlan, from Saeed, from Abu Hurairah. But the order of the wording in the isnad needs some clarification. It seems to me that the one who expressed doubt about its connection, saying "Allah willing" after the words "from Abu Hurairah," is Imam Ahmad. Ahmad is the one of whom it was said, "Sufyan said, the one we heard from him... from Thumama bin Athal." He means that Sufyan narrated the following story as it was read out to him, and that he heard from him the words "from Ibn Ajlan." Then the rest of the isnad was read to Sufyan, namely "from Saeed, from Abu Hurairah," and the text of the hadith was read to him starting from his words "The Muslims were..."In between, there came a parenthetical clause explaining the pronoun in his words "the Muslims captured him," clarifying that this captive was Thumama bin Athal, and explaining why Sufyan used a pronoun in "captured him" instead of naming him directly, namely that Sufyan had been asked about him, but the narrator was not certain he had actually heard the question, so he said, "I do not know who Sufyan was asked about, was he asked about Thumama bin Athal?" Imam Ahmad remained silent on this point and simply related the text of the hadith, because he knew with certainty that this story concerned Thumama, but he still recorded his own doubt about whom the questioner had asked about, since he had not heard the actual wording of the question and only knew it from the surrounding indications and context. Imam Ahmad then wanted to reinforce the meaning of the isnad, so he repeated it at the end of the hadith, as reported by his son Abdullah, who said, "I heard him," meaning his father, "say, from Sufyan..."As for the hadith itself, it is sahih and firmly established from Abu Hurairah, even though Ahmad or Sufyan had some doubt about a detail within it. I did not find it, as far as has reached me, through the narration of Sufyan, nor through the narration of Ibn Ajlan. Rather, I found it in a longer form through the narration of Layth bin Saad, and through the narration of Abdul-Hameed bin Jafar, both of them from Saeed Maqburi. And I found it in a shortened form through the narration of Abdullah bin Umar Umari, from Saeed.Ahmad related it, 9832, from Hajjaj, that is Ibn Muhammad, from Layth, that is Ibn Saad, from Saeed, that is Maqburi, that he heard Abu Hurairah say... Likewise, Bukhari related it, 8:68-69, from Abdullah bin Yusuf, and Muslim, 2:56, from Qutayba bin Saeed, and Abu Dawud, 2769 [3:9, Awn al-Mabud], from Isa bin Hammad Misri and Qutayba, all of them from Layth bin Saad, with the same wording. Except that Abu Dawud mentioned from it only Thumama's conversion to Islam, then said, "and he continued the hadith." Bukhari related a portion of it in four places with the same isnad, 1:462, 465, and 5:54, 55.Muslim related it through Abu Bakr Hanafi, from Abdul-Hameed bin Jafar, from Saeed Maqburi, that he heard Abu Hurairah say... He did not give its wording in full, but rather referred to the narration of Layth that preceded it. Ibn Kathir cited it in Tarikh, 5:48-49, from Bukhari's longer narration. Ahmad also related a portion of it, 8024 and 10273, from the hadith of Abdullah bin Umar, that is Umari, from Saeed Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah.Ibn Abdul-Barr mentioned this story of Thumama in Istiab, 79-80, in both a shortened and a longer form, without an isnad. In the shortened version he said, "Abdul-Razzaq mentioned it, from Ubaydullah and Abdullah, the two sons of Umar, from Saeed Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah..." And in the longer version he said, "Umara bin Ghaziya related it from Saeed bin Abu Saeed Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah..." Then after relating it, he said, "Ibn Uyayna related it from Ibn Ajlan, from Saeed Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah, similar to the hadith of Ibn Ghaziya, but without mentioning the poetry." This is a reference by Ibn Abdul-Barr to the very narration found here in the Musnad.In Sufyan's narration from Ibn Ajlan, the one found here in the Musnad, there are useful points not mentioned in Layth's narration, which we will point out, Allah willing. Ibn Ishaq related it in an even longer form than these other narrations, from Saeed Maqburi. Ibn Athir related it in Usud Ghaba, 1:246-247, saying, "Abu Jafar Ubaydullah bin Ahmad bin Ali informed us," with an isnad going back to Yunus bin Bukayr, from Ibn Ishaq, from Saeed Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah...Thumama is pronounced with a damma on the three-dotted tha and a light, un-doubled mim. Athal is pronounced with a damma on the hamza, a light three-dotted tha, and ends with a lam. He was the son of Numan, from Banu Hanifa bin Lujaym, with a damma on the lam and a fatha on the jim. His biography is found in Ibn Saad, 5:401, Isaba, 1:211, and Jamharat Ansab, 293.As for his saying, "If you kill me, you kill one whose blood carries weight..." he means that he was a man of standing among his people, who would guard his blood and take revenge for him if he were killed. He was also a man of loyalty and gratitude, in the manner of a noble Arab, that when a favor was shown to him, he would give thanks for it and remain faithful to it. This is why he refused to accept Islam until he was released from captivity, he did not want anyone to think he had embraced Islam out of fear of the sword. Part of the excellence of his Islam was that he remained steadfast in the truth when his people, the people of Yamama, apostatized along with Musaylima the Liar, and he played a role in fighting the apostates.As for his saying, "Not a single grain from Yamama shall reach Quraysh..." in the narration of Umara bin Ghaziya as reported by Ibn Abdul-Barr, Quraysh's provisions and benefits used to come from Yamama, then he went out and cut off what used to reach them from there, both their provisions and their other benefits. When this caused them real harm, they wrote to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, "We know you to be one who commands and urges the maintaining of kinship ties. Thumama has cut off our provisions and caused us harm, so if you see fit to write to him so that our provisions may reach us, please do so." So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrote to him, "Let my people's provisions reach them."This explains the condensed wording found in Sufyan's narration from Ibn Ajlan here, in the words "So they wrote, You command the maintaining of kinship ties," he said, "and he wrote to him."