The corruption of “ibn” into “ʿan” and vice versa in manuscript originals, leading to errors in chains of transmission
And mistakes by some scholars – may Allah have mercy on them.
Very often, “ibn” (son of) is corrupted into “ʿan” (from), or vice versa, in manuscript originals. This results in the construction of some unknown names, or known ones that have no place in those chains of transmission. This happens because of the similarity of the script, so some copyists do not notice it. For this reason, the scholars were keen on carefully collated and accurately ضبطed copies, especially if they had been read to the author himself.
If this is the condition of manuscripts, then the state of printed books in our time is something that makes one’s skin crawl. Therefore, the student of knowledge must be cautious of the many corruptions and misreadings found in books.
An incorrect biography in al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī’s al-Mukhtārah due to corruption in the chain of transmission
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ, in his book al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah (7/240), under the Musnad of Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – gave the biography:
“Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ from Anas.”
He said:
Abū al-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Maḥmūd ibn Saʿd al-Thaqafī informed us – reading to him while we listened in Damascus – it was said to him: did your grandfather al-Ḥāfiẓ Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl inform you – reading to him and he affirmed it –: al-Sharīf Abū Naṣr al-Zaynabī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhalliṣ informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd al-Jawharī narrated to us; Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Fazārī narrated to us; Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī narrated to us; Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ narrated to us, from Anas ibn Mālik – may Allah be pleased with him – who said:
“I witnessed the sermon of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Minā. He praised Allah and glorified Him, then he said: ‘Praise be to Allah, I praise Him and seek His help.’ Then he asked them: ‘Which day is sacred?’ They said: ‘This day.’ He said: ‘Which land is sacred?’ They said: ‘This land.’ He said: ‘Which month is sacred?’ They said: ‘This month.’ He said: ‘Then your blood and your wealth are sacred to you, like the sanctity of this day of yours in this land of yours. Have I conveyed?’ They said: ‘O Allah, yes.’”
I say: This ḥadīth is well known as being from Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and Anas ibn Mālik has no connection to it.
What happened is that the word “ibn” was corrupted into “ʿan”. The original is: “Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ ibn Anas said: I witnessed…”.
When it was corrupted, the chain became “from Anas”, so some scholars thought it was Anas ibn Mālik.
Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim titled it in al-Āḥād wa’l-Mathānī (3/11):
“Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ ibn Anas – may Allah be pleased with him.”
He said:
Yaʿqūb ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us; Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; Abū Mālik narrated to us; from Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ ibn Anas, who said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the Farewell Pilgrimage at Minā…” the ḥadīth.
Aḥmad narrated it in his Musnad, in the Musnad of Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ (4/305), from Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, who said: Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī narrated to me; Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ narrated to me, who said:
“I was riding behind my father during the Farewell Pilgrimage when the Prophet ﷺ spoke. I stood on the rear of the mount, placed my hand on my father’s shoulder, and I heard him say: ‘Which day is sacred…’” and he mentioned it.
In Muʿjam al-Ṣaḥābah by Ibn Qāniʿ (3/169):
“Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ al-Ashjaʿī,”
then he mentioned from the route of Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Salamah ibn Nubayṭ, from his father, who said:
“I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at ʿArafah delivering a sermon on a red camel before the prayer.”
Then he mentioned, from the route of Imām Aḥmad in his Musnad, the previous ḥadīth.
Al-Dhahabī narrating this ḥadīth without noticing the error, and the origin of this mistake
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī narrated it in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (12/151), in the biography of “Ibrāhīm al-Jawharī”.
He said:
ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Hāshimī informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qaṭīʿī narrated to us; Abū Bakr Ibn al-Zāghūnī informed us; Abū Naṣr al-Zaynabī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhalliṣ informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad – that is Ibn Ṣāʿid – narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd al-Jawharī narrated to us; Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated to us; Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī informed us; Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ informed us, from Anas, who said: “I witnessed the sermon of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Minā…” the ḥadīth.
Its editor Ṣāliḥ al-Samarī, under the supervision of Shaykh Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, said: “Its narrators are trustworthy.”
I say: This narration and the previous narration of al-Ḍiyāʾ are from the Juzʾ of Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhalliṣ. It is found in the first part of his al-Fawāʾid al-Muntaqāh al-Gharāʾib ʿan al-Shuyūkh al-ʿAwālī.
Thus, al-Ḍiyāʾ – may Allah have mercy on him – narrated it via al-Ḥāfiẓ Qiwām al-Sunnah Abū al-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭāhir al-Ṭalḥī al-Aṣbahānī, Shaykh of the Ḥuffāẓ (d. 535 AH), from his book al-Targhīb wa’l-Tarhīb.
And al-Dhahabī narrated it from the Juzʾ of Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhalliṣ.
Thus, the corruption is in the original of the Juzʾ of Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zakariyyā al-Baghdādī al-Dhahabī, “the Refiner of Gold from Impurity” (d. 393 AH).
My strongest assumption is that the corruption occurred in the original of his book, and it is unlikely that it came from his shaykh Ibn Ṣāʿid or from the shaykh of his shaykh al-Jawharī, for both were from the great precise ḥuffāẓ.
This is because al-Mukhalliṣ was born in Shawwāl of the year 305 AH, and his earliest hearing – as he himself said – was in the year 312 AH, and he heard from Ibn Ṣāʿid and others under the careful supervision of his father. Allah knows best.
A mistake by al-Mizzī due to this narration
Al-Mizzī – may Allah have mercy on him – relied on this narration and thus affirmed that Nubayṭ narrated from Anas ibn Mālik, and so he erred.
He said in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (29/316):
“Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ al-Ashjaʿī al-Kūfī, the father of Salamah ibn Nubayṭ. He had companionship, narrated from the Prophet ﷺ, and from Anas ibn Mālik and Sālim ibn ʿUbayd…”
A mistake by Ibn Qāniʿ in al-Muʿjam
Ibn Qāniʿ narrated in Muʿjam al-Ṣaḥābah, in the biography of “Sharīṭ ibn Anas” (1/346):
ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Warrāq narrated to us; Dāwūd ibn Rashīd narrated to us; Marwān narrated to us.
And ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Surayj – that is Ibn Yūnus – narrated to us; Ibn Abī Zāʾidah narrated to us; Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī narrated to us; Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ narrated to us, from his father Sharīṭ ibn Anas, who said:
“I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivering a sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage; he praised Allah and glorified Him, then he asked us…” the ḥadīth.
I say: Sharīṭ ibn Anas has no connection to the chain of this ḥadīth at all.
It is a well-known ḥadīth narrated by Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Fazārī and Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī, both from Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ al-Ashjaʿī, from the Prophet ﷺ.
Thus it was narrated by Ayyūb ibn Muḥammad al-Wazzān (as in al-Nasāʾī: 2/443), and Yaʿqūb ibn Ḥumayd (as in Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim’s al-Āḥād wa’l-Mathānī: 3/11), from Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah.
And thus it was narrated by Imām Aḥmad (as in his Musnad) from Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, and by Mūsā ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī (as in Sunan al-Bayhaqī al-Kubrā: 3/215), from Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī, from Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ ibn Anas.
I think the defect occurred in one of the two chains with Ibn Qāniʿ. When he combined them, he presented both with the same chain, since it is unlikely that this ḥadīth would come with the same chain from both routes – I mean the route of Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah and that of Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī.
It is possible that “ibn” was corrupted into “ʿan” in one of the chains. Thus, the chain “from Nubayṭ ibn Sharīṭ” became “from Nubayṭ from Sharīṭ”, and so it became “from Nubayṭ from his father Sharīṭ”. Ibn Qāniʿ then transmitted both narrations with the same chain.
He has mistakes of this type, as I have explained – praise be to Allah – in other places as well.
Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik
21/4/2010