hadith. Al-Nishtibrī ranked among the foremost scholars, famed for his discretion and upright conduct. Given his sharp mind, keen understanding, lifelong pursuit of hadith, and the journeys he undertook for it, it is unthinkable that he would have considered it lawful to claim an ijāzah that had originally been issued to a brother of his—bearing the same name—who died in childhood and after whom al-Ḍiyāʾ was later named. He himself reinforces its authenticity, saying, “I was born in 537 AH,” yet he continued to narrate by means of that ijāzah from 624 AH until his death. The resulting chain is extraordinarily elevated—so elevated that it first strikes a hadith specialist with astonishment. Only after weighing the corroborating indicators does he become convinced of its soundness; Allah knows best.

I personally read by virtue of this ijāzah, sometime around 700 AH, before our shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dubāhī, who was himself authorized for it by al-Nishtibrī on the authority of al-Karūkhī. Now, in 737 AH, it is still transmitted by ijāzah through Bint al-Kamāl, to whom he had written it in 647 AH. Whoever seeks an unparalleled elevation of chain should obtain it; even were a student to travel an entire month merely to hear a single fascicle, his journey would not be wasted. Those who granted authorization for it include:

• Wajīh al-Shahhāmī: his father enabled him to hear a large body of material, after which he himself travelled to Herat and Baghdad. He heard the Ṣaḥīḥ from Abū Sahl Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥafṣī, who had heard it from al-Kushmihānī. He heard twenty-six fascicles of the Fawāʾid al-Makhlidīn from Abū Ḥāmid al-Azharī. He heard the Musnad of al-Sarrāj from al-Qushayrī, together with al-Qushayrī’s Risālah, and transmitted them. So states Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd, who adds: he also heard the Zuhriyyāt of al-Duhalī from al-Azharī, from Ibn Ḥamdūn, from Ibn al-Sharqī, from him. In addition, he heard the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd from Abū al-Fatḥ Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥākimī—who reported, “Abū ʿAlī al-Rūdhbārī informed us; Ibn Dāsa informed us.” Ibn Dāsa was a trustworthy imam, born in 55 AH and deceased in Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 541 AH.

• Hibat al-Raḥmān ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Qushayrī, Abū al-Asʿad, the preacher of Nīshāpūr,