no more than half a month went by before I had mastered it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then said, “By Allah, I do not trust the Jews with my correspondence.”
He continued, “After I had learnt it, I used to write for him to the Jews whenever he wished to write to them; and when they wrote to him, I would read their letters aloud to him.” (1)
Al-Bukhārī quoted this report only in suspended form (2), remarking: “Khārijah ibn Zayd relates it from his father,” because Ibn Abī al-Zinād does not meet his criteria. Even so, he cited it with decisive wording on account of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s reliability and his familiarity with his father’s learning.
307 – al-Murrī, Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar*
The ḥāfiẓ, the imām: Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Ayyūb al-Murrī, al-Adhraʿī (3), later al-Dimashqī, the police officer, known as Ibn al-Jabbān (4).
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound (hasan). The hadith is recorded by Abu Dawud, no. 3645 (Book of Knowledge); al-Tirmidhi, no. 2716 (Book of Asking Permission); and Ahmad, Musnad 5/186, all through the route of Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad. Al-Hakim authenticated it (1/75) and al-Dhahabi concurred. Al-Tirmidhi judged it “good and sound.” A second authentic route appears in Ahmad 5/182 and al-Hakim 3/422, from Jarir → al-Aʿmash → Thabit ibn Ubayd: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked him, “Do you know Syriac? Letters reach me in it.” When he replied in the negative, the Prophet said, “Then learn it,” and he mastered it in seventeen days. See Fath al-Bari 13/161.
(2) Fath al-Bari 13/161, “Legal Rulings – The chapter on translators and whether one interpreter suffices.” Ibn Hajar notes that al-Bukhari cited this report only in suspended form; he later supplied the full chain in his Tarikh: Ismail ibn Abi Uways → Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Zinad → his father → Kharija ibn Zayd → Zayd.
(*) Al-Ikmal 2/261; Muʿjam al-Buldan 1/131; al-ʿIbar 3/158 (misprinted there as “al-Mazzi” with zay); Tadhkirat al-Huffaz 3/1076 (same misprint); Tawdiḥ al-Mushtabih, entry “al-Jaban,” vol. 1, fol. 112; Shadharat al-Dhahab 3/229.
(3) The nisba Adhraʿi refers to Adhruʿat, a town on the outskirts of Greater Syria; see Muʿjam al-Buldan.
(4) Spelled with the letter jim; al-ʿIbar and Shadharat al-Dhahab misread it as “al-Hibban” with ha.