“he has informed us.”
It seems he deemed that permissible because he once heard Shuʿayb say to a group, “Transmit it from me.”⦗1⦘
Ibrāhīm ibn Dayzil said: “I heard Abū al-Yamān relate:
‘Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal asked me, “How did you receive Shuʿayb’s books?”
I replied, “I read some of them to him; some he read to me; for some he granted me ijāza; and some were by munāwala.”
He said, “Yet in every case you say, ‘Shuʿayb informed us.’”⦗2⦘’”
Ibn Maʿīn said: “I asked Abū al-Yamān about the narrations of Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, and he answered, ‘They are not by munāwala; whatever I obtained by munāwala I have never conveyed to anyone.’⦗3⦘”
Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī transmitted from Abū al-Yamān that he said: “Shuʿayb was strict regarding ḥadith. We visited him when death had overtaken him and he said, ‘These are my books, and I have verified them. Whoever wishes to take them may take them; whoever wishes to collate may collate; and whoever wishes to hear them from my son may hear them, for he has heard them from me.’⦗4⦘”
(1) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 319. In the Introduction to Fath al-Bari, p. 396, Ibn Hajar writes: Al-Hakam ibn Nafi‛, Abu al-Yaman al-Himsi, enjoys unanimous recognition for his reliability; al-Bukhari relied on him extensively and transmitted many reports directly from him, whereas the other compilers cite him only through intermediaries. Some critics questioned whether he actually heard hadith from Shu‛ayb: some said the transmission was by munawala (hand-delivery of a written text), others that it rested on a mere ijaza (authorization). Al-Fadl ibn Ghassan relates that he heard Yahya ibn Ma‛in say: “I asked Abu al-Yaman about Shu‛ayb’s hadith, and he replied: ‘It was not munawala; the material I transmitted to Ahmad through munawala I did not include here.’” Abu Zur‛a al-Razi went further, claiming that Abu al-Yaman heard only one hadith from Shu‛ayb. Ibn Hajar comments: If this is accurate, it nevertheless proves the validity of transmission by ijaza, even though Abu al-Yaman consistently uses the formula “akhbarana” (he informed us); such wording is unobjectionable if it was his personal convention.
(2) Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 319.
(3) Al-Dhahabi cites the report in Mizan al-I‛tidal, 1/581.
(4) Tarikh Dimashq, ed. Abu Zur‛a, 1/434 and 2/716.