Al-Ḥākim said: I heard Abū Saʿīd (1) al-Shuʿaybī relate that he heard Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān say, “I presented this ḥadith—the one whose full chain he then cited—to Ibn ʿUqda. He replied, ‘It was narrated to us by a tall shaykh called Ibn Sinān.’ I said, ‘That is my father.’
We were informed by Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh in the year 494 AH, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Muʿizz ibn Muḥammad al-Harawī. He told us that Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir, in 527 AH, had informed him; he in turn was informed by Abū Saʿd al-Kanjurūdhī; who was informed by Abū ʿAmr al-Hīrī; who said: “My father, Abū Jaʿfar, narrated to me: ‘Aḥmad ibn al-Azhar ibn Manīʿ narrated to us; Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār narrated to us, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar who said:
“I divorced my wife while she was menstruating. ʿUmar asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about it, and he said: ‘Command him to take her back until she becomes pure, then she menstruates once more and becomes pure again. After that—if he wishes—he may divorce her before touching her, or he may keep her. That is the waiting-period for which Allah has ordered that women be divorced.’ ” (2)
Al-Ḥākim also transmitted this report through Abū ʿAmr al-Hīrī, and we matched his transmission with an even higher chain.
The student hands the book to the shaykh; the shaykh scrutinises it carefully, being both knowledgeable and alert, and is certain that it is an authentic copy originating from his own transmission. He then returns the book to the student, informs him that it is indeed from his narration, and authorises him to transmit it on his behalf.
All these cases fall under *munaawala* (the physical hand-over of a written text) combined with *ijaza* (formal authorisation); this is the highest grade of ijaza.
Al-Nawawi said: According to al-Zuhri, Bayʿa, Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Ansari, Mujahid, al-Shaʿbi, ʿAlqama, Ibrahim, Abu al-ʿAliya, Abu al-Zubayr, Abu al-Mutawakkil, Malik, Ibn Wahb, Ibn al-Qasim and many others, such munaawala has the same probative force as direct *samaaʿ* (hearing from the shaykh).
Al-Hafiz [Ibn Hajar] states in Fath (1/143): Ibn Manda claimed that every instance in which al-Bukhari writes: “He said to me” is merely an ijaza. This claim is refuted by the fact that I have surveyed numerous passages where, in the Sahih, he says “He said to me” and found that, outside the Sahih, he renders the same wording as “He narrated to us.” Al-Bukhari does not allow the verb “haddathana” (he narrated to us) to be used for a mere ijaza; hence, for him those reports were actually heard directly. He adopted this wording only to differentiate between what meets his strict criterion and what does not. Allah knows best.
(1) The original manuscript reads “Saʿd”; we have corrected it on the basis of al-Ansab, Tabsir al-muntabih and al-Lubab.
(2) Its chain of transmission is sound (hasan). The author also cited it in Tadhkirat al-huffaz, 2/762, with the same isnad, commenting: “This is singular on this route; it was also narrated by the hafiz Ibn ʿUqda from Abu Jaʿfar al-Hiri.”