. J '-Ɵ  (cont.)

Since it is in almost all of the major works, the following question has arisen: There is no question that Imam Malik knew this hadith and passed it on to others, but did he record it in his Muwatta? Imam Malik revised his Muwatta on many different occasions. Hence, there are different renditions of his Muwatta. In most of the renditions, Imam Malik did not record this hadith. However, one of the well-known and accepted renditions of Imam Malik's Muwatta is that recorded and passed on by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaibani, the close student, companion and colleague of the Imam Abu Hanifah. He went to Madinah to meet and study with Imam Malik. He learned the entire Muwatta from Imam Malik and passed it on to his students. This rendition of Muwatta also contains this hadith.3 The Chains of the Hadith The large number of works in which this hadith is recorded may give one the impression that numerous Companions, Followers and so forth recorded this hadith. One may even be fooled into thinking that it is definitely 1 Takhreej here means the study of the hadith. It includes information such as in which books of hadith the hadith is found. It will also include a conclusion about the authenticity of the hadith. Of course, the hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in this collection of forty hadith are all authentic hadith. In general, the takhreej section will be short unless there is some interesting information that the author feels compelled to discuss. This hadith, hadith #1, for example, has one of the longer discussions of the hadith. 2 ibn Muhammad, pp. 43-50. 3 See the discussion in al-Ashqar, Muqaasid, pp. 520-521. Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi mutawaatir.1 Actually, this hadith is of the opposite extreme: a ghareeb hadith.2 The only correct or authentic narrations of this hadith all share the same narrators in the beginning part of the chain. The top part of Figure 1 is a graphic representation of the only authentic narration of this hadith. As a whole, Figure 1 is a representation of the chains of this hadith that are found in what are called "the six books" of hadith.3 Figure 1 depicts who narrated this hadith from the Prophet (peace be upon him). At the bottom of the figure, there is a mention of the different books of the "six books" that included the hadith through that particular chain. Its only strong chains are from Umar ibn al-Khattaab. Similarly, only Alqama narrated the hadith from Umar and only Muhammad ibn lbraaheem narrated it from Alqama. And no one except Y ahya ibn Saeed narrated it from Muhammad ibn lbraaheem. But from Yahya ibn Saeed, many narrators heard the hadith, as can be clearly seen in Figure 1 . However, this in no way affects the authenticity or acceptability of the hadith. As long as these narrators-who were, for the most part, teachers and scholarsare people of integrity and proficiency, the fact that they alone narrated this hadith is not a problem. A quick study of the different narrators from whom this hadith has come will demonstrate that there is no reason to reject their narration simply because they were the sole narrators of this hadith:4 (1) Umar ibn al-Khattaab: He is the famous companion of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the second caliph in Islam. His integrity, honesty and proficiency has not been doubted by the scholars of hadith throughout history. (2) Alqama ibn Waqqaas al-Laithi: He was born during the lifetime of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The strongest opinion seems to be that he did not meet the Prophet (peace be upon him) and, therefore, he was not a Companion but one of the Followers. He narrated very few hadith. He narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattaab, Abdullah ibn Umar, Muawiyah and other Companions. Al-Zuhri and others narrated hadith from him. He is declared trustworthy (thiqa) by the scholars of hadith, such as al-Nasaai. He died during the reign of Abdul Maalik ibn Marwaan. 1 Mutawaatir means that a hadith is narrated by so many people in each chronological link that it is inconceivable that they all could have agreed upon a lie or all committed the same mistake. 2 Ghareeb means that in at least one of the links, there is only one known acceptable narrator. (Note that this is only one usage of the word ghareeb and some scholars used it in a different sense.) 3 The "six books" of hadith are: Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan al-Nasaai, Sunan Abu Dawood, Sunan al-Tirmidhi and Sunan ibn Maajah. The term the "six books" does not imply that all of the hadith in these works are authentic or that they are the strongest books of hadith. Instead, this term became widespread due to the popularity of the collections of narrators compiled that included all of the narrators that are found in these six works. 4 See Sadlaan, hadith, pp. 39-41. E' - :c m c: -" Q. Q. e " o..