the hadiths of al-Zuhri. Come, then, so that we may review (1) what al-Zuhri reported from the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The two of them began to rehearse the material, and neither of them produced anything unfamiliar to the other until they were finished. I have never seen a session of mutual review finer than theirs.
Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal then said, “Come, let us go over what al-Zuhri narrated from the children of the Companions.” So they reviewed again, and again neither of them brought forth anything the other did not know… until Ahmad said to Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ:
“Al-Zuhri has—from Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf—that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘It would not please me to own red camels, nor to have the Pact of the Muṭayyabīn’ (2).”
Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ responded, “You are the teacher, and yet you mention something like this!”
Ahmad merely smiled and said, “It was related from al-Zuhri by a narrator who is maqbūl, even ṣāliḥ—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq.”
He asked, “And who transmitted it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān?”
Ahmad answered, “Two trustworthy men (3): Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUlayya and Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal.”
Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ said, “I ask you by Allah—dictate it to me.”
Ahmad replied, “It is in the book.”
He rose, went inside, brought out the book, and dictated it to him.
Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ then said, “Had I gained nothing in Iraq but this hadith, it would have been a great deal,” after which he bade him farewell and departed (4).
This hadith is found in the Musnad of Imām Ahmad through the two aforementioned transmitters.
Its wording there is: The Prophet ﷺ said, “I was present as a youth with my uncles at the Pact of the Muṭayyabīn, and I would not wish to possess red camels and then break it”—this is the version of Ismāʿīl.
He then narrated it a second time, saying, “Bishr ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhri, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘I witnessed the Pact of the Muṭayyabīn with my uncles while I was…’”