in the year 527 AH, in Herat.
Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdūn al-Sulamī informed us—as did Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Muʿizz; and likewise Zāhir and Tamīm ibn Abī Saʿīd—who both said:
“Abū Saʿd Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kanjarūdhī informed us, saying:
Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān informed us; Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī informed us; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; he said:
‘Muḥammad ibn Bishr narrated to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The crescent moon was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, whereupon he said:
“When you see it, fast; and when you see it again, break your fast. If it is hidden from you, then complete thirty days.” (1)
This is a sound, singular ḥadith.
It is transmitted only by Abū al-Zinād from al-Aʿraj; no one relates it from him except ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, and no one reports it from ʿUbayd Allāh except Muḥammad ibn Bishr al-ʿAbdī—as far as I know.
Muslim recorded it, transmitting through Abū Bakr [ibn Abī Shaybah]; thus our chain coincides with his at a higher level. Of the compilers of the Sunan, only al-Nasāʾī narrated it, taking it from Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Marwazī, from Ibn Abī Shaybah, so that our version is two degrees higher.’”
ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad informed us, saying:
“Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir informed us; Saʿīd ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Bundār informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Mukhliṣ informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar Sulaymān ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“I have not left for my community after me any trial more harmful to men than women.” (2)