Confusion in some biographies in the printed edition of Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ!
In the printed edition of al-Ḥilyah, in the biography of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit (5/63–65), it states:
“Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us: Masʿar narrated to us from Abū ʿAwn, from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥanafī, from ʿAlī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me and to Abū Bakr on the Day of Badr:
‘On the right of one of you is Jibrīl, and on the other is Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl is a mighty angel who witnesses the fighting and stands in the ranks.’
Sharik and others narrated it from Masʿar.”
“Abū Bakr ibn Khallād narrated to us: al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah narrated to us: al-Ḥusayn ibn Qutaybah narrated to us, who said: Masʿar narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ seeking permission for jihād. The Prophet ﷺ said to him:
‘Are your parents alive?’
He said: Yes.
He said: ‘Then remain with them.’
In another wording: ‘So strive (in jihād) through them.’
This is strange from the narration of Masʿar and Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah. The correct and well-known narration is: Masʿar from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Shāʿir—whose name is al-Sāʾib ibn Farrūkh—from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, from the Prophet ﷺ.”
“Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl, the preacher from Ḥimṣ, narrated to us: Abū Nuʿaym Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Ramlī narrated to us; Jaʿfar al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tarjumānī—corrupted in the printed edition to al-Ramjānī—narrated to us; al-Ṣalt ibn al-Ḥajjāj narrated to us; Masʿar narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘Whoever prays in congregation from the beginning of the month of Ramaḍān to the end of the month of Ramaḍān has taken his share of Laylat al-Qadr.’
The text and chain are strange; we have not written it except from this route.”
“Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar—corrupted in the printed edition to ʿAmr—ibn Ghālib narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Muʾammal narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf narrated to us; Kathīr ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us; Wakīʿ narrated to us from Masʿar, from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, from al-Ḥasan, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw a man driving a sacrificial camel, and said:
‘Ride it.’
He said: It is a sacrificial camel.
He said: ‘Ride it, woe to you!’
Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf alone narrated it from Kathīr. Masʿar has several solitary narrations from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, from his father and others.”
“Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us: Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿdān narrated to us; Bakr—corrupted in the printed edition to Bakīr—ibn Bakkār narrated to us; Masʿar—corrupted in the printed edition to Saʿd—narrated to us; Ibn Suḥaym narrated to us, who said: I heard Ibn ʿUmar say:
‘I would perform ghusl and then warm myself by it.’”
“Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdūn ibn ʿImārah [ḥ]. And Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us—both said: Abū Nuʿaym ibn ʿAdī narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭalqī narrated to us; ʿAffān ibn Sayyār al-Bāhilī narrated to us; Masʿar ibn Kidām narrated to us from Jāmiʿ ibn Abī Rāshid, from Abū Wāʾil, from ʿAbdullāh, that the Prophet ﷺ taught them the tashahhud:
‘al-Taḥiyyātu lillāh wa’l-ṣalawātu wa’l-ṭayyibāt, al-salāmu ʿalayka ayyuhā al-nabī wa raḥmatullāhi wa barakātuh, al-salāmu ʿalaynā wa ʿalā ʿibādillāhi al-ṣāliḥīn, ash-hadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh wa ash-hadu anna Muḥammadan ʿabduhu wa rasūluh.’
We have not written it as a marfūʿ narration from Masʿar except from the narration of Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭalqī from ʿAffān, through Ibn Ḥamdūn from him. Abū Nuʿaym ibn ʿAdī stopped it (made it mawqūf).”
“Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us: ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad ibn Mujāshiʿ narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb narrated to us; Ḥassān ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us from Masʿar, from Abū Shajarah Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād, from Ḥumrān—corrupted in the printed edition to Ḥassān—who said: I used to prepare the water for ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him, for his ablution, and I heard him say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘There is no Muslim who completes the ablution that Allah has prescribed for him, then prays the five prayers, except that it is an expiation for what is between them.’
More than one person narrated it from Masʿar, and as far as I know none raised it except Ḥassān.”
“ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Bālawayh al-Warrāq narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Nuʿaym ibn Maysarah narrated to us; Masʿar narrated to us from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his father, from Jābir:
‘That the Prophet ﷺ departed from Jamʿ (Muzdalifah) before sunrise.’
This is strange from the narration of Masʿar from Jaʿfar; we have not written it except from this route.”
“Masʿar narrated from Jābir al-Juʿfī, Jamīʿ ibn ʿUmayr, and Jawāb ibn ʿUbaydullāh—corrupted in the printed edition to ibn Yazīd, and it may be Jābir ibn Yazīd—and Jarād ibn Mujālid and Jubayr [as in the printed edition, and this is a corruption! Perhaps the first is Muḥārib ibn Dithār, and the second is Ḥabīb, or Zubayd, or Bakīr—Allah knows best].”
“al-ʿAbbās ibn Aḥmad al-Kinānī narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Muzanī narrated to me; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Umawī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Yaʿlā narrated to us from Masʿar, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Zayd ibn Wahb, from Abū Dharr, who said:
‘I came one night and found the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so I followed him in the moonlight. He turned and saw me and said: “Who is this?” I said: Abū Dharr. He said: “Indeed, the ones with the most (in the world) will be the least on the Day of Resurrection, except the one to whom Allah gives good,”—gesturing with his hand like this and like this, in front of him and behind him, and to his right and to his left.’
This is strange from the narration of Masʿar from Ḥabīb; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Umawī alone narrated it.”
“Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Yaqṭīnī narrated to us…”
I say: These ḥadīths that are mentioned here in the biography of Ḥabīb have no connection to his biography. Rather, their proper place is in the biography of Masʿar ibn Kidām. It seems that confusion occurred in the manuscripts, because the ḥadīths that come after these—those mentioned by Abū Nuʿaym—are narrated by Masʿar from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, as in the last two ḥadīths I mentioned. From here the confusion between the two biographies arose.
I do not know whether the confusion is from the copyists or from the printers, and I consider it unlikely that it is from the original of Abū Nuʿaym himself, even though there are slight differences between what appears in the biography of “Ḥabīb” and what appears in the biography of “Masʿar.” Allah knows best.
Abū Nuʿaym mentioned in the biography of Masʿar ibn Kidām (7/224):
“Abū Bakr ibn Khallād narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Sāmī narrated to us: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī narrated to us: Masʿar narrated to us from Abū ʿAwn, from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥanafī, from ʿAlī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me and to Abū Bakr on the Day of Badr:
‘On the right of one of you is Jibrīl, and on the other is Mīkāʾīl, and Isrāfīl is a mighty angel who witnesses the fighting and stands in the ranks.’
Sharik and others narrated it from Masʿar.”
I say: In the “biography of Ḥabīb” it says: “Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us: Masʿar narrated to us from Abū ʿAwn…”.
This indicates that there is an omission at the beginning of the chain. This is the first ḥadīth that appears in the biography of “Ḥabīb” from the narration of Masʿar, and it has nothing to do with Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit. The shaykh of Abū Nuʿaym, “Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Aḥmasī,” does not narrate from Masʿar. This clarifies the defect present in the “biography of Ḥabīb.”
Abū Nuʿaym said in the biography of Masʿar (7/224):
“Abū Bakr ibn Khallād narrated to us: al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Usāmah narrated to us: al-Ḥusayn ibn Qutaybah narrated to us, who said: Masʿar narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ seeking permission for jihād…”
He did not mention: “In another wording: ‘So strive through them,’” as appears in the biography of “Ḥabīb.”
He said in the biography of Masʿar (7/225):
“Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl al-Wāʿiẓ al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us…”
and he continued with the narration of the prayer in Ramaḍān, exactly as cited earlier, then said:
“Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ghālib narrated to us…”
and mentioned the ḥadīth of the sacrificial camel, then said:
“Masʿar has several solitary narrations from Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah, and Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah was a Kūfan, counted among the Tābiʿīn; he met Anas ibn Mālik and heard from him.”
I say: From this it becomes clear that what was mentioned in the “biography of Ḥabīb”—“several solitary narrations of Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah”—contains an omission.
He said in the biography of Masʿar (7/233–234):
“Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq narrated to us…”
and he continued with the remaining narrations exactly as cited above, concluding with the narration of Abū Dharr, then said:
“Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Yaqṭīnī narrated to us…”
Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik
Muḥarram 1431 AH
2/1/2010