the point in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim that reaches the report of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād, through Sufyān—“Make things easy and do not make them difficult” (1). He could not find anyone who had transmitted it from Ibn ʿAbbād, so he was told that Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī possessed it on Ibn ʿAbbād’s authority. He therefore set out from Nīshāpūr expressly to hear that ḥadith from him.
I added: He made that journey also for the sake of his two sons. He went on: My father—though well advanced in years—travelled to Jurjān to hear from ʿImrān ibn Mūsā ibn Mujāshiʿ the narration of Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, from Ḥafṣ ibn Maysarah, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “While the people were engaged in the dawn prayer, someone came to them…” and he recounted the rest of the ḥadith (2). I myself heard it from my father.
Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū ʿAmr relate that he heard his father say, “Everything that al-Bukhārī cites with the wording ‘So-and-so said to me’ was transmitted by handing over the book and having it read back for approval (3).”
And I heard Abū ʿAmr say: “My father used to revive the night in prayer.”
(1) Muslim, Sahih, no. 1733, Book of Jihad, “Chapter on facilitating matters and avoiding harshness”: the Prophet sent Abu Musa al-Ashari and Muadh to Yemen and instructed them, “Make things easy and do not make them difficult; give glad tidings and do not repel; cooperate with one another and do not differ.”
(2) Malik, al-Muwatta 1/195 (Book of the Qibla); Bukhari, Sahih 1/424 (Book of Prayer) and in several chapters of the commentary on Surah al-Baqarah; Muslim, Sahih no. 526 (Book of Mosques); Ahmad 2/16, 26; Tirmidhi 341; Nasa i 2/61—all through the chain of Abdullah ibn Dinar from Abdullah ibn Umar: while the worshippers in Quba were praying the dawn prayer, a messenger arrived and said, “Last night Qur an was revealed to the Prophet commanding him to face the Kaaba. So turn towards it.” Their faces had been toward Syria; they turned at once to the Kaaba.
(3) Among hadith scholars, reading a text aloud to the teacher is called ʿard (presentation). Munawala is when the teacher hands the student his original or a collated copy, saying: “This is my audition from so-and-so; transmit it from me,” or “I authorise you to relate it from me.” The manuscript may remain with the student as his property, or it may be lent to him so that he can copy and collate it before returning it to the teacher.