An Omission from the Biography of “ʿAbbās al-Jashamī” in the Printed Edition of Imām al-Bukhārī’s at-Tārīkh al-Kabīr!

Imām al-Bukhārī said in at-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (7/4):

“ʿAbbās al-Jashamī. Narrated from him: Qatādah and al-Jarīrī. He narrates from ʿUthmān. This was stated by Muʿādh ibn Hishām from his father from Qatādah. And ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said: from Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, from ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbdullāh: that ʿUthmān wrote regarding the traveler.” End quote.

I say: This is how it appears in both printed editions of at-Tārīkh al-Kabīr: the edition of Imām al-Muʿallimī al-Yamānī and the edition with the marginal notes of Maḥmūd aṣ-Ṣaʿīdī.

However, some of Imām al-Bukhārī’s words related to the subject’s hearing from Abū Hurayrah and his narration from him regarding Sūrat al-Mulk have fallen out of this biography.

Mughlatāy said in Ikmāl Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (7/224):

“And in the Tārīkh of al-Bukhārī: ʿAbbās al-Jashamī narrates from ʿUthmān; this was stated by Muʿādh ibn Hishām from his father from Qatādah. And ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said: from Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ, from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, from ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbdullāh: that ʿUthmān wrote regarding the traveler. And ʿAmr said to me: Shuʿbah narrated to us from Qatādah from ʿAbbās al-Jashamī from Abū Hurayrah who said: the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Tabārak interceded for its companion.’ He did not mention hearing from Abū Hurayrah.”

Thus Mughlatāy copied from al-Bukhārī’s book:

“And ʿAmr said to me: Shuʿbah narrated to us from Qatādah from ʿAbbās al-Jashamī from Abū Hurayrah who said: the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Tabārak interceded for its companion.’ He did not mention hearing from Abū Hurayrah.”

This text has fallen out of the printed edition, and it is possible that it fell out of the manuscript relied upon by al-Muʿallimī when he edited it.

The text is established as Mughlatāy transmitted it, and he—may Allāh have mercy on him—was among the most extensive of scholars in transmitting from reliable sources.

This transmission was further confirmed by three ḥuffāẓ: al-Mundhirī in Mukhtaṣar Sunan Abī Dāwūd (1/407), Ibn al-Mulaqqin in al-Badr al-Munīr (3/562), and his student Ibn Ḥajar in at-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr (1/574). This is because what fell out of the biography pertains to the ḥadīth narrated by ʿAbbās al-Jashamī from Abū Hurayrah regarding Sūrat al-Mulk.

The ḥadīth is narrated by Qatādah, from ʿAbbās al-Jashamī, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, that he said:

“Indeed, there is a sūrah in the Qurʾān of thirty verses that interceded for a man until he was forgiven, and it is: {Tabāraka alladhī bi-yadihi al-mulk}.”

It was narrated by Aḥmad in his Musnad, Abū Dāwūd, at-Tirmidhī, an-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah in their Sunan, Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ, al-Ḥākim in his Mustadrak upon the two Ṣaḥīḥs, and others, via Qatādah with the wording mentioned.

At-Tirmidhī said: “This is a ḥasan ḥadīth.”

Al-Bazzār said: “We do not know this ḥadīth to be narrated from Abū Hurayrah—may Allāh be pleased with him—except by this chain.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “This is a ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth by its chain, and the two Shaykhs did not record it.”

Ibn Ḥajar said in at-Talkhīṣ al-Ḥabīr (1/574):

“Al-Bukhārī declared it defective in at-Tārīkh al-Kabīr on the basis that ʿAbbās al-Jashamī is not known to have heard from Abū Hurayrah. However, Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in ath-Thiqāt. And it has a corroborating report from the ḥadīth of Thābit from Anas, narrated by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr with a ṣaḥīḥ chain.”

Ibn al-Mulaqqin said in al-Badr al-Munīr (3/562):

“This ḥadīth is ṣaḥīḥ… At-Tirmidhī said: this is a ḥasan ḥadīth. Al-Ḥākim said: ṣaḥīḥ by its chain. Al-Bukhārī mentioned it in his at-Tārīkh al-Kabīr from the narration of ʿAbbās al-Jashamī from Abū Hurayrah, as Abū Dāwūd and others recorded it, and he said: he did not mention hearing from Abū Hurayrah. Al-Mundhirī said: he means that ʿAbbās al-Jashamī narrated this ḥadīth from Abū Hurayrah without mentioning that he heard it from him.”

Al-Albānī said in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (1265): “A ḥasan ḥadīth, as at-Tirmidhī said, and Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, and adh-Dhahabī declared it ṣaḥīḥ.”

Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ and his colleagues said: “Ḥasan due to corroboration; its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the two Shaykhs except ʿAbbās al-Jashamī.”

I say

The ḥadīth is weak. ʿAbbās al-Jashamī did not hear from Abū Hurayrah, as Imām al-Bukhārī stated, and his narration from the Companions is questionable. He narrates from people such as Kaʿb al-Aḥbār and others among the Tābiʿīn, and he has some mursal reports from the Prophet ﷺ. He is of unknown status (mastūr). For this reason, Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in ath-Thiqāt, since no one explicitly declared him weak.

Someone like him is not accepted in solitary narration from Abū Hurayrah, especially when there are major, reliable companions of Abū Hurayrah. For this reason, al-Bazzār explicitly stated that it is not narrated from Abū Hurayrah except by this chain.

As for those who authenticated the ḥadīth through corroborating reports, this is according to the method of the later scholars—and it is not correct. These corroborations are flimsy, like a spider’s web.

Nothing authentic is established in this chapter.

Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik.