Ibn al-Mubārak was never heard to say, “ḥaddathanā.” He considered “akhbaranā” the broader wording (1), and he would not correct even a single letter when someone recited before him.
Nuʿaym said, “I have never seen anyone more intelligent than Ibn al-Mubārak, nor anyone who applied himself more diligently in worship.”
Al-Ḥasan ibn al-Rabīʿ reported that Ibn al-Mubārak, concerning the ḥadīth of Thawbān from the Prophet ﷺ—“Deal uprightly with Quraysh so long as they deal uprightly with you” (2)—explained it by the ḥadīth of Umm Salamah: “Do not kill them as long as they perform the prayer” (3).
In the debate over irjāʾ and the question of faith’s varying levels, Ibn al-Mubārak argued on the basis of what he narrated from Ibn Shawdhab, from Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from Huzayl ibn Shuraḥbīl, who said: “ʿUmar said, ‘If the faith of Abū Bakr were placed on one side of a scale and the faith of all the people of the earth on the other, the scale would tip in his favor.’ ”
I say: ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, meant the people of the earth in his own time.
Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said: I heard Ibn al-Mubārak say, “The sword that was drawn among the Companions was a tribulation, and I do not say of any one of them that he was at fault.”
(1) Abu Abd Allah al-Hakim states in Ma rifat Ulum al-Hadith, p. 260: “The usage I prefer in transmission, and which I observed among most of my teachers and the leading scholars of my time, is: when one receives the wording directly from the muhaddith with no one else present, he says ‘haddathani (so-and-so narrated to me)’; when he receives it verbally along with others, he says ‘haddathana (so-and-so narrated to us)’; when he himself reads the text to the muhaddith, he says ‘akhbarani (so-and-so informed me)’; and when the text is read to the muhaddith while he listens, he says ‘akhbarana (so-and-so informed us).’ ” Yahya ibn Sa id added: “‘akhbarana’ and ‘anbaana’ are synonymous.
(2) The documentation of this hadith has already been provided on p. 215, note (1); see there.
(3) Related by Muslim (no. 1854, Book of Leadership), al-Tirmidhi (no. 2266), Abu Dawud (no. 4760), and Ahmad, 6/295, 302, 305, 321, from the narration of Umm Salama: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Leaders will be appointed over you; you will approve some of their actions and disapprove others. Whoever resents their wrongdoing is absolved, and whoever denounces it is safe, but whoever is content and follows them is blameworthy.” They asked, “Shall we not fight them?” He replied, “No, as long as they perform the prayer.”