Al-Abarquhī narrated to us; al-Fath narrated to us; Hibat Allah al-Ḥāsib narrated to us; Ibn al-Naqqūr narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn al-Wazīr narrated to us; al-Baghawī narrated to us; Dāwūd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍabbī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Muslim, from ʿAmr, from Jābir, reported:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “War is deception.” (1)
49 – Dāwūd ibn Rushayd, Abū al-Faḍl al-Khwārizmī * (B, M, D, S)
A leading imām, ḥāfiẓ, and trustworthy authority—known as Abū al-Faḍl al-Khwārizmī and later al-Baghdādī—he was a client of Banū Hāshim, an indefatigable, far-traveling seeker, and a devoted scholar of hadith.
He heard from: Abū al-Malīḥ al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmar al-Raqqī, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar, Hushaym ibn Bashīr, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, Yaḥyā ibn Zakarīyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah, al-Walīd ibn Muslim, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayyah, Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Muʾaddib, Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah, Shuʿayb ibn Isḥāq, Suwayd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣanʿānī, Makkī ibn Ibrāhīm, and many others.
(1) The isnad (chain of transmission) is strong. Muhammad b. Muslim is al-Ta’ifi, and ‘Amr is Ibn Dinar. Al-Bukhari recorded the hadith (6/110, Book of Jihad, chapter: “War is a ruse”), as did Muslim (no. 1739, Book of Jihad, chapter: “The permissibility of stratagem in war”), Abu Dawud (2636) and al-Tirmidhi (1675), all through routes going back to Sufyan b. ‘Uyaynah → ‘Amr b. Dinar → Jabir.
Regarding the word khud‘a (ruse), it is transmitted with three vocalisations. The soundest is khud‘a (with a fatha on the kha and a sukun on the dal). Thalab remarked that this was, according to what reached us, the Prophet’s own usage. Al-Khattabi explained that it denotes a single act of deception: once the combatant has deceived the enemy, he cannot retract. A second reading is khud‘a (kha with damma, dal with sukun), a noun formed from khida‘, just as one says la‘ba (a game). A third is khud‘a (kha with damma, dal with fatha), meaning “something that deceives people, raising their hopes and then reneging,” comparable to la‘ba when a person is much given to playing with things.
(*) Sources on the narrator: Ibn Sa‘d, al-Tabaqat 7/349; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir 3/244; al-Tarikh al-Saghir 2/371; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil 3/412; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad 8/367-368; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, fols. 388-389; al-Dhahabi, al-‘Ibar 1/429-430; Id., Tadhhib al-Tahdhib 1/205; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 3/184; Id., Khulasa Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 109; al-Dhahabi, Shadharat al-Dhahab 2/91.