al-Ahadith allati istashhada biha Muslim fi bahth al-khilaf fi اشتراط al-ilm bil-liqa - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Ahadith allati istashhada biha Muslim fi bahth al-khilaf fi ishtirat al-ilm bil-liqa (The Hadiths Cited as Evidence by Muslim in Examining the Disagreement over Requiring Knowledge of Meeting) is a specialized hadith-methodology treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) . The work investigates the narrative examples and chains of transmission (asānīd) invoked by Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj in the introduction to his Sahih Muslim concerning the methodological debate over whether narrating with ambiguous terminology (an'anah) requires positive proof of meeting (thubūt al-liqāʾ) between contemporary transmitters .
Background and Composition
The treatise addresses the classical dispute regarding a trustworthy narrator who transmits from a contemporary using terms susceptible to hearing without explicit proof of their meeting . In the introduction to his Sahih, Muslim defended the view that mere contemporaneity (muʿāṣarah) and the possibility of meeting suffice for continuity (ittiṣāl) unless the transmitter is known for obfuscation (tadlīs), citing a consensus of earlier scholars and presenting various hadith chains accepted by scholars despite the lack of explicit records of direct audition or personal encounter .
Al-Muallimi initially intended to evaluate these specific narrations in his work al-Tankil, but noted there that the scope of that book was too narrow to accommodate a comprehensive examination, which prompted him to compose this separate treatise to expand upon each of those hadiths .
Subject Matter and Analysis
In this work, al-Muallimi examines the individual narrations cited by Muslim to test whether they genuinely support his argument against his opponents . He conducts detailed critical appraisals of the transmission paths for each example:
- The narration of Hisham ibn Urwa from his father from Aisha: Muslim cited this as an uncontested chain where hearing was not declared in every instance; al-Muallimi responds by noting that some variations transmit the report through Hisham's brother Uthman from their father, classifying Hisham's transmission as tadlīs and thus distinct from the non-obfuscating narrators Muslim intended to illustrate .
- The narration of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri and Salih ibn Abi Hassan from Abu Salama from Aisha: Al-Muallimi analyzes the alternate longer pathway transmitted via Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, concluding that Abu Salama held the hadith through both avenues and transmitted via the lower route out of deference to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz rather than tadlīs .
Al-Muallimi does not provide a single uniform verdict for all of Muslim's examples; rather, he analyzes each case independently, demonstrating that several of Muslim's evidentiary examples contain identifiable flaws, parallel supporting chains, or instances of established hearing .
Manuscript and Publication
The author titled the work in his own hand at the top of the first page of his autograph manuscript . Two manuscript copies are known, one of which is in al-Muallimi's handwriting . The treatise spans approximately twenty-one pages and was edited by Muhammad Ajmal al-Islahi and Adil ibn Abd al-Shakur al-Zurqi as part of a collection of al-Muallimi's treatises on hadith terminology, published within the compendium Athar al-Muallimi (Volume 15) .
Answer updated