Likewise, it was said to Ibn ʿUmar, “Do you object to anything Abū Hurayrah relates?”
He answered, “No—but he ventured to narrate while we were too cautious.”⦗1⦘
Abū Hurayrah responded, “How am I to blame if I remembered while they forgot?”
Yazīd ibn Hārūn said, “I heard Shuʿbah remark, ‘Abū Hurayrah used to practise tadlīs (omitting the immediate source).’”⦗2⦘
I say: Tadlīs on the part of the Companions is widespread and carries no reproach, for when they conceal a link it is only from another Companion senior to them, and all the Companions are deemed upright.⦗3⦘
Shurayk, transmitting from Mughīrah, from Ibrāhīm, said: “Our teachers would leave aside some of Abū Hurayrah’s hadith.” Ḥusayn ibn ʿAyyāsh reported something similar from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm.⦗4⦘
(1) Al-Hakim records it in Al-Mustadrak, 3/510. Ibn Hajar cites it in Al-Isaba, 12/76, drawing on Fawaid al-Muzakki (the edition reviewed by al-Daraqutni), with the chain: Abd al-Wahid b. Ziyad – al-Aʿmash – Abu Salih – Abu Hurayra. He also quotes Abu Hurayra’s comment: “What fault is mine if I remembered while they forgot?”
(2) Mentioned by Ibn ʿAsakir, 19/122/1. Ibn Kathir observes in Al-Bidaya, 8/109, that Shuʿba was apparently referring to his own report, “Whoever wakes up in a state of major impurity, his fast is invalid.” When questioned, Shuʿba said: “Someone related it to me; I did not hear it directly from the Messenger of Allah.”
(3) Ibn Hibban, Introduction to his Sahih, 1/122: We accept the Companions’ reports from the Prophet even when they do not state explicit audition, for we know with certainty that one of them might hear a hadith from another Companion and then narrate it directly from the Prophet without naming that intermediary. All of them—may Allah be pleased with them—were upright, leading Imams; God has preserved the honor of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah from any imputation of weakness.
(4) Tarikh Ibn ʿAsakir, 19/122/1; Usul al-Sarakhsi, 1/341. Ahmad, Kitab al-ʿIlal, p. 140: Abu Usama narrates from al-Aʿmash: “Ibrahim (al-Nakhaʿi) was like a money-changer in hadith; I would bring him a report, and he would record only what I had taken from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayra.” He added: “They would omit certain narrations of Abu Hurayra.” Ibn ʿAsakir defended Abu Hurayra and rebutted Ibrahim al-Nakhaʿi, and Ibn Kathir declared that the Kufans’ practice is untenable and that the majority of scholars reject it.