Ahmad 8088

Its isnad is sahih, despite Abdul-Razzaq's claim of a defect in it, as we will explain, Allah willing. Tirmidhi narrated it in 2:369 from Yahya bin Musa, from Abdul-Razzaq, with this isnad, but he did not mention Abdul-Razzaq's remark. Instead he said, "I asked Muhammad bin Ismail, meaning Bukhari, about this hadith." He said, "This is a mistaken hadith. Abdul-Razzaq erred in it. He abridged it from the hadith of Maamar, from Ibn Tawus, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said, 'Sulayman bin Dawud said, "I will surely go around tonight to seventy women, so that every woman will bear a boy." So he went around to them, but none of the women bore a child except one, who bore half a boy.' The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'If he had said, "If Allah wills," it would have been as he said.'"It is clearly evident from the narration in the Musnad here that Bukhari erred in attributing the abridgment of the hadith to Abdul-Razzaq, because Abdul-Razzaq himself explicitly states that the one who abridged it was his teacher Maamar. The story of Sulayman bin Dawud, to which Bukhari and Abdul-Razzaq refer, has already appeared at 7701, narrated by Abdul-Razzaq himself from Maamar, with this same isnad, and in it it says, "I will surely go around tonight to a hundred women."Both Abdul-Razzaq and Bukhari erred in claiming a defect in this hadith and alleging that it was an abridgment of the story of Sulayman, because the two hadiths differ completely in meaning, even though some of the wording in them is similar. This is because Sulayman's statement "I will surely go around" carries the sense of an oath, but he was swearing to two things, that he would go around to them, which he did, and that each of them would bear a boy, which was not something within his own power but rather a matter of Allah's decree and will. So the exception expressed by saying "if Allah wills," had he said it, would have released him from his oath had he not gone around to them. It carries the meaning of a wish and an acknowledgment of Allah's will, submission to His decree, and entrusting to Him what is not within the servant's own action nor within his power. This falls under Allah's command to His servant to say such a thing, in His statement, "And do not say about anything, 'I will do that tomorrow,' except [by adding], 'If Allah wills.'" [Kahf 18:23]So the two hadiths carry two different meanings, even though they are close in some of their sense. The wording of the hadith here cannot be an abridgment of the other hadith in the story of Sulayman. Rather, if Maamar or Abdul-Razzaq had done that, their doing so would have been an addition to the narration, and a boldness in attributing to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ words he did not say, and both of them are too eminent in the eyes of the scholars to do such a thing. But Abdul-Razzaq assumed that Maamar had abridged it, and he erred in this assumption. Then Bukhari assumed that it was Abdul-Razzaq who had done so, and he erred in what he assumed. May Allah have mercy on both of them.Moreover, the meaning of the hadith is also established from Ibn Umar, appearing repeatedly in the Musnad with similar wording. The first of them, 4510, "Whoever swears an oath and makes an exception has the choice, if he wishes to proceed with his oath, or if he wishes to withdraw without being in breach." And 4581, "Whoever swears an oath and says, 'If Allah wills,' has made an exception." And the last of them, 6414, "Whoever swears an oath and makes an exception, then if he wishes he may proceed, and if he wishes he may withdraw without being in breach." Al-Hafiz has examined this point in Fath al-Bari, 11:523-524, with some hesitation on his part, though the overall drift of his discussion inclines toward invalidating this claim of a defect and toward the soundness of both hadiths together.