Azami 1316

Abu Dawud (66), Tirmidhi (66), and Nasai (326) all narrated it through Walid bin Kathir, from Muhammad bin Kaab Qurazi, from Ubaydullah bin Abdul-Rahman bin Rafi, from Abu Saeed Khudri, who said what follows. Abu Saeed said in a version found in Nasai, "I passed by the Prophet ﷺ while he was performing wudu from the well of Budaah, and I said, 'Do you perform wudu from it when unpleasant, foul things are thrown into it?' He said, 'Water is not made impure by anything.'"Tirmidhi said, this is a hasan hadith, and Abu Usama transmitted this hadith excellently. No one narrated the hadith of Abu Saeed about the well of Budaah better than what Abu Usama narrated (from Walid bin Kathir), and this hadith has been narrated through more than one route from Abu Saeed. End of quote.I say, its chain is hasan li-ghayrihi. Ubaydullah bin Abdul-Rahman bin Rafi was not confirmed as reliable by anyone, though Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the trustworthy narrators (5/71). However, the hadith has other routes, as Tirmidhi said, including what Abu Dawud narrated (67) through Muhammad bin Ishaq, from Sulayt bin Ayub, from Ubaydullah bin Abdul-Rahman bin Rafi Ansari, then Adawi, from Abu Saeed Khudri, who said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ being told that water was being drawn for him from the well of Budaah, a well into which the flesh of dogs, menstrual cloths, and human waste were thrown. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Water is pure and is not made impure by anything.'"Muhammad bin Ishaq is a mudallis, and here he narrated using an, and Sulayt bin Ayub was mentioned by Ibn Hibban among the trustworthy narrators (6/430). Al-Hafiz said of him, "Acceptable," meaning when corroborated. Nasai narrated it through Mutarrif bin Tareef, from Khalid bin Abu Nawf, from Sulayt, from a son of Abu Saeed Khudri, from his father, who said, "I passed by the Prophet ﷺ while he was performing wudu from the well of Budaah, and I said, 'Do you perform wudu from it when unpleasant, foul things are thrown into it?' He said, 'Water is not made impure by anything.'"This chain contains Khalid bin Abu Nawf, whom Ibn Hibban mentioned among the trustworthy narrators (6/264), and al-Hafiz said of him, "Acceptable," meaning when corroborated.The hadith has other chains, all of them defective, and for this reason Ibn Jawzi quoted Daraqutni as saying, "It is not firmly established." Nawawi responded to this in al-Khulasa (1/65), saying, Tirmidhi graded it hasan, and in some copies it reads "hasan sahih." Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal said, "It is sahih," and others said likewise, and their statement takes precedence over Daraqutni's statement that "it is not firmly established." End of quote. Likewise, Yahya bin Main and Abu Muhammad bin Hazm also graded it sahih, as stated in Talkhis Habir by Ibn Hajar (1/13).As for Daraqutni's statement, "It is not firmly established," al-Hafiz says, we did not find this in his Ilal nor in his Sunan. End of quote. I say, Daraqutni said this concerning the hadith of Abu Hurairah in Ilal (8/157).Then, even if this unrestricted hadith is sound, it is qualified by the earlier hadith of Ibn Umar, namely that if the water amounts to two qullahs or more and its color, taste, or smell has not changed, then it remains pure, whereas if it changes, it becomes impure by consensus, as Ibn Munzir related in his book al-Ijmaa (p. 33).As for the hadiths reported from Thawban, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, "Water is pure except what overcomes its taste or smell," narrated by Daraqutni and others, this is daif. Likewise, what was narrated from Abu Umama, from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said, "Water is not made impure by anything except what overcomes its taste, smell, and color," narrated by Ibn Majah (521) and others, this too is daif. Likewise, what is not sound is what was narrated from Jabir bin Abdullah, narrated by Ibn Majah (520), in which is found Tareef bin Shihab, upon whose weakness there is unanimous agreement.On this subject there is also what was narrated from Sahl bin Saad Saadi, who said, "I gave water to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with my own hand from Budaah." Narrated by Imam Ahmad (22860) from Husayn bin Muhammad, who said, Fudayl narrated to us, meaning Ibn Sulayman, who said, Muhammad bin Abu Yahya narrated to us, from his mother, who said, "I heard Sahl bin Saad say," and then he related it.Daraqutni narrated it (48) through another route, from Fudayl bin Sulayman Numayri, from Abu Hazim, from Sahl bin Saad, who said, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Water is not made impure by anything." Its chain is daif because of what has been said about Fudayl bin Sulayman Numayri, for Ibn Main and Nasai declared him daif, Abu Zura said he is weak in hadith, and Abu Hatim said his hadith is written down but is not strong.I say, the collective body of hadith scholars narrated from him, and Ali bin Madini, despite his strictness regarding narrators, narrated from him, so perhaps he selected carefully from his hadith. The corroboration of Hatim bin Ismail does not strengthen him, due to his inconsistency in the chain, for it was narrated by Abu Yaala (7519), Tabarani in al-Kabir (6026), and Bayhaqi in his Sunan (1/259) and in al-Marifa (1823), all of them through routes from Hatim bin Ismail, from Muhammad bin Abu Yahya, from his father, who said, "I went in to see Sahl bin Saad Saadi among some women, and he said, 'If I gave you water to drink from Budaah, you would dislike it, yet, by Allah, I gave the Messenger of Allah ﷺ water to drink with my own hand from it.'"Bayhaqi said, this chain is hasan and connected. However, Tahawi narrated it in his commentary (4) through this same route and said "from his mother" instead of "from his father," which agrees with what Fudayl bin Sulayman narrated as found in Imam Ahmad. His mother is unknown, neither her identity nor her condition, so how can the chain be called hasan given its inconsistency in both chain and text?It has yet another chain even weaker than this one, which is what Qasim bin Asbagh narrated in his Musannaf, saying, Muhammad bin Wadah narrated to us, saying, Abdul-Samad bin Abu Sakina Halabi narrated to us in Aleppo, saying, Abdul-Aziz bin Abu Hazim narrated to us, from his father, from Sahl bin Saad, who said, "They said, 'O Messenger of Allah, you perform wudu from the well of Budaah, and into it is thrown what purges people, and menstrual cloths, and filth.' The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Water is not made impure by anything.'"Muhammad bin Abdul-Malik bin Aymen said in his Mustakhraj on Sunan Abu Dawud, Muhammad bin Wadah narrated to us with this same chain. Ibn Wadah said, I met Ibn Abu Sakina in Aleppo, and he related it. Qasim bin Asbagh said, this is among the best things regarding the well of Budaah. Ibn Hazm said, Abdul-Samad is a well-known trustworthy narrator. Qasim said, and it is narrated from Sahl bin Saad concerning the well of Budaah through several routes, and this is the best of them, so know that. End of Ibn Qattan's statement.Al-Hafiz said, Ibn Abu Sakina, whom Ibn Hazm claimed to be well-known, Ibn Abdul-Barr and others said, he is unknown, and we found no one who narrated from him except Muhammad bin Wadah. End of quote. See Talkhis (1/13).I say, it is as he said, for I did not find his biography in the commonly circulated books, so how could such a person be called well-known?A useful note. Shafii said, the well of Budaah was large and wide, and impurities were thrown into it that did not change its color or taste, nor did any smell appear from it. Abu Dawud said, I heard Qutayba bin Saeed say, I asked the caretaker of the well of Budaah about its depth. He said, at its fullest, the water reaches up to the pubic area. I said, and when it recedes? He said, below the private area.Abu Dawud said, and I measured the well of Budaah with my own cloak, stretching it across it and then measuring it, and I found its width to be six cubits. I asked the man who opened the garden for me and let me in whether its structure had been changed from what it originally was. He said, no. And I saw in it water whose color had changed. End of quote.I say, perhaps that was due to prolonged stagnation and lack of use.As for his statement that menstrual cloths, the flesh of dogs, and foul things were thrown into it, Khattabi said in Maalim Sunan (1/73), many people, upon hearing this hadith, might imagine that this was a regular habit of theirs, and that they deliberately and intentionally engaged in this practice, but this is something that cannot be assumed even of a non-Muslim under protection, let alone a pagan, much less a Muslim. It has never ceased to be the custom of people, ancient and modern, Muslim and non-believer alike, to keep water pure and protect it from impurities. So how could it be assumed of the people of that era, who were the highest ranks of the people of religion and the best community of Muslims, in whose land water was most precious and the need for it most pressing, that this was their practice with water, treating it so disrespectfully, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed whoever relieved himself at the sources and paths of water? How much more so one who turned springs and sources of water into a target for filth and a dumping ground for impurities? This does not befit their condition at all. Rather, this occurred only because this well was situated in a low-lying area of ground, and floodwaters used to sweep this filth from the roads and courtyards, carrying it and depositing it into the well, and the water, due to its abundance, was not affected by the falling of these things into it, nor did it change because of them. So they asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about its matter…