Ahmad 7429

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Abu Muawiya is Muhammad bin Khazim Dareer, as the narration from him has occurred repeatedly before. Here it appears as "Hadathana Muawiya," with "Abu" omitted, which is a clear printing error.Bukhari narrated this hadith, 9:439-440, with similar wording, through the route of Hafs bin Ghiyath from Amash, with the wording, "The best charity is what a wealthy person leaves behind, the upper hand is better than the lower hand, and begin with those you support." The wife says, "Either feed me or divorce me." The slave says, "Feed me and employ me." The son says, "Feed me, to whom will you leave me?" They said, "Abu Hurairah, did you hear this from the Messenger of Allah?" He said, "No, this is from Abu Hurairah's own purse."Bayhaqi narrated it, 7:471, through the route of Abu Muawiya and Abu Usama, both from Amash, with wording similar to Bukhari's narration. He then mentioned that Bukhari had recorded it. Hafiz stated at the end of the Book of Expenditures, 9:452, that this report of Abu Hurairah is mawquf with a connected chain, and that it is among what Bukhari alone narrated apart from Muslim. As for the first part of the hadith, which is the marfu portion, its meaning has already appeared in the hadith of Abu Hurairah, 7155, 7342. From this we can recognize the error of Majd bin Taymiyyah in al-Muntaqa, 3873, where he attributed the explanatory addition in it, which is Abu Hurairah's own statement, to the two Shaykhs in Sahihayn, since Muslim did not record it in his Sahih at all.The hadith will come again with similar wording, 10795, through the route of Hisham bin Saad, from Zayd bin Aslam, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, marfu, "The best charity is what comes from surplus wealth, the upper hand is better than the lower hand, and begin with those you support." He said, Abu Hurairah was asked, "Who are those you support?" He said, "Your wife says..." and so on with similar meaning.From this narration and Bukhari's narration, we learn that the hadith here is abridged, and that the most important wording relevant to the rest of it has been omitted, namely his saying, "And begin with those you support," since the rest of it, "Your wife says..." whether marfu or mawquf, is simply an explanation of who is meant by "those you support."Qastalani mentioned, 159, after Bukhari's narration, that this hadith was recorded by Nasai in Ishrat an-Nisa. Likewise in Fath al-Bari there is a statement that Nasai narrated it through two routes, as will come later. I have traced Sunan Nasai at that location, and in every place the hadith might be found, but I did not find it there. It seems it is in Sunan al-Kubra, or in some copies of the Sunan that have not reached us.Munziri mentioned it in Targhib wal-Tarhib, 2:28, with similar wording, without separating the two parts. He said, "Ibn Khuzayma narrated it in his Sahih." Perhaps his statement "your wife says" to the end is Abu Hurairah's own speech, inserted into the text. I do not know how he missed seeing it in Sahih Bukhari, and seeing the clear statement there that this is Abu Hurairah's own statement.The narrators differ regarding Abu Salih on this statement, whether it is mawquf or marfu. The correct view, beyond doubt, is that it is Abu Hurairah's own statement, and that whoever made it marfu erred and forgot. Ahmad narrated it, as will come later, 10830, through the route of Saeed bin Abu Ayub, from Muhammad bin Ajlan, from Zayd bin Aslam, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, and at its end, "It was said, 'Who are those I support, O Messenger of Allah?' He said, 'Your wife is among those you support, she says feed me...'"Daraqutni narrated something similar, 145, and Bayhaqi, 7:470, both through the route of Saeed bin Abu Ayub. Bayhaqi then said, "This is how Saeed bin Abu Ayub narrated it from Ibn Ajlan. Ibn Uyayna and others narrated it from Ibn Ajlan, from Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah, and made its ending Abu Hurairah's own statement. Likewise, Amash made it, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah."The narration of Ibn Ajlan from Saeed Maqburi, to which Bayhaqi refers, was narrated by Shafii in al-Umm, 5:78, combining the previous hadith 7413 with Abu Hurairah's statement at the end of this hadith. Shafii narrated it from Sufyan bin Uyayna, from Muhammad bin Ajlan, from Saeed bin Abu Saeed, from Abu Hurairah, "A man came to the Prophet," and he mentioned the hadith 7413 with similar wording. Then Ibn Ajlan said, "Saeed bin Abu Saeed said, then Abu Hurairah says, when he narrates this, 'Your child says, spend on me...'" and he mentioned it with similar meaning.This narration of Shafii is also in his Musnad, arranged by Shaykh Abid Sindi, 2:63-64. Daraqutni also narrated it, 415, through the route of Hammad bin Salama, from Asim, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, "The Prophet said, 'The wife says to her husband, feed me or divorce me, and his slave says, feed me and employ me, and his child says, to whom will you leave us?'"Hafiz pointed to these narrations in al-Fath, and established through careful verification that this statement is Abu Hurairah's own speech. He said, "It occurs in Nasai's narration, through the route of Muhammad bin Ajlan, from Zayd bin Aslam, from Abu Salih, with the same chain, 'It was said, Who are those I support, O Messenger of Allah? He said, your wife,' and so on, and this is an error. The correct version is what he himself recorded through another route from Ibn Ajlan, with the same chain, in which it says, 'Abu Hurairah was asked, Who are those you support, O Abu Hurairah?'"Some commentators clung to this, meaning the first narration in which it is marfu, while overlooking the other narration, and preferred what they understood based on what Daraqutni recorded through the route of Asim, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet, who said, "The wife says to her husband, feed me." But there is no evidence in this, because there is something questionable about Asim's memory. The correct approach is to distinguish between the different cases.The same thing happened to Ismaili, through the route of Abu Muawiya, from Amash, with the chain of this chapter's hadith, "Abu Hurairah said, your wife says," and so on. This corresponds to the meaning of his statement at the end of this chapter's hadith, "No, this is from Abu Hurairah's own purse." In the aforementioned narration of Ismaili, it occurs, "They said, 'Abu Hurairah, is this something you say from your own opinion, or from the saying of the Messenger of Allah?' He said, 'This is from my own purse.'"The narration of Abu Muawiya to which Hafiz refers as being with Ismaili is Ahmad's narration from Abu Muawiya here. Perhaps Hafiz did not have it readily in mind from al-Musnad when he wrote this.As for Abu Hurairah's statement "from my own purse," al-kis, with the kaf vowelled with kasra, is a type of container, a well-known vessel used for dirhams, dinars, pearls, and rubies. Qadi Iyad said in al-Mashariq, 1:350, "With the kaf vowelled with kasra, this is how the majority narrated it, meaning from the knowledge he possessed, stored in his heart, just as wealth is stored in a purse. Asili narrated it," meaning one of the narrators of Sahih Bukhari, "with the kaf vowelled with fatha, meaning from his own understanding and insight, and from his own resources, not from what he transmitted."Likewise, Hafiz affirmed decisively in al-Fath that most narrators of the Sahih transmitted it with kasra, except Asili, who transmitted it with fatha.