Ahmad 7468

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Yazid is Ibn Harun. Saeed is Ibn Abu Aruba. Nadr bin Anas bin Malik Ansari is a trustworthy successor, whose reliability has already been established in , and it is added here that Ibn Saad gave his biography in 1/7/139, as did Bukhari in Al-Kabir 4/2/87, and Ibn Abu Hatim in 4/1/473.The hadith was narrated by Bukhari in 5:94, 112, Muslim in 1:440 and 2:22-23, Abu Dawud in 3938, 3939 [4:37-38 of Awn al-Mabud], Tirmidhi in 2:282, and Ibn Majah in 2027, all of them by way of Saeed bin Abu Aruba, with this same chain. It will also come again twice more, at and , by way of Saeed bin Abu Aruba.Bukhari also narrated it in 5:97-112, and Muslim in 1:440, both by way of Jareer bin Hazim from Qatada, in similar wording. Likewise Abu Dawud narrated it in 3937 by way of Abu Aban bin Yazid Attar, from Qatada. Shuba and others also narrated it from Qatada, but without mentioning the requirement of earning one's freedom (istisaa) at the end. Because of this, some of the leading scholars raised objections against this addition, considering it a mistake on the part of Saeed bin Abu Aruba. However, he was not alone in transmitting it, as we have mentioned from the narrations of Jareer and Aban from Qatada, who both included this same addition.But Bukhari, may Allah reward him well, presented the narration of Jareer, then the narration of Ibn Abu Aruba, and then said, "Hajjaj bin Hajjaj, Aban, and Musa bin Khalaf followed him in this, from Qatada, while Shuba shortened it." Abu Dawud did likewise, following Bukhari's approach, for after his own narration he said, "Rawh bin Ubada narrated it from Saeed bin Abu Aruba without mentioning the earning of freedom." This is an indication from him that some of the narrators from Ibn Abu Aruba shortened the report, just as Shuba and others shortened it from Qatada. Abu Dawud then said, "Jareer bin Hazim and Musa bin Khalaf both narrated it from Qatada, with a chain and meaning like that of Yazid bin Zuray, and they mentioned the earning of freedom."Abu Dawud narrated it through four teachers from Ibn Abu Aruba, namely Yazid bin Zuray, Muhammad bin Bishr, Yahya, and Ibn Abu Adi. He singled out Yazid bin Zuray for special mention in his final remark because he was the most reliable of people, or among the most reliable, in transmitting from Saeed bin Abu Aruba, to the point that Ahmad said, "Whatever Yazid bin Zuray narrated from Saeed bin Abu Aruba, do not worry about not having heard it from anyone else, for his hearing from him goes back a long way."Ibn Qayyim went to great lengths in refuting this objection and in establishing the soundness of this addition, leaving nothing further to be said, in his commentary on Tahzib Sunan [vol. 5, pp. 396-402]. Likewise, Hafiz verified its soundness and thoroughly covered its various transmission paths in Fath al-Bari, 5:112-115. For this reason, we have contented ourselves with this brief indication here. See also what has already passed in the Musnad of Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab at , .Al-shiqs, with the shin vowelled with a kasra and the qaf carrying no vowel, and al-shaqis, with the shin vowelled with a fatha and the qaf with a kasra followed by a ya, both mean a share in something jointly owned by more than one person.Ustusiya, in the passive form with the doer unnamed, means, as Ibn Athir explained, "The istisaa of a slave, when part of him has been freed and part remains enslaved, is that he works to secure the release of the remaining portion of his bondage, earning wages and spending their proceeds on his master. His use of his earnings in this way is called saaya, meaning labor for one's freedom."As for the phrase "without being burdened," it means without being burdened beyond what he can bear, that is, he is not required to exert more than his capacity allows. The word "him" was not recorded in this place in the original manuscripts of the Musnad, though it is certainly intended. Above its expected place in manuscript M, the mark indicating correctness was written, showing that its omission at this point was deliberately confirmed. Yet it was written in the margin of manuscript K, without any indication as to which copy it belongs to, and without being marked as a correction, and it is indeed present in all the other narrations.