494 – Muʿādh b. Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that “the Prophet ﷺ sent him to Yemen and ordered him to collect, from every thirty head of cattle, one tabiʿ (a year-old male) or tabiʿah (a year-old female); from every forty, one musinnah (a two-year-old cow); and from each adult person one dinar, or its equivalent in maʿāfirī cloth.” It was recorded by the Five; the wording here is Aḥmad’s. al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan, noting a difference of opinion regarding the continuity of its chain, while Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim judged it sound. (1)

Hadith grading
This narration is ḥasan. It was transmitted by Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Dārimī (1569), Ibn Abī Shaybah (9920), Ibn al-Jārūd (1104), al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī through the isnād of Abū Wāʾil ← Masrūq ← Muʿādh. Al-Ḥākim said, “Its chain is sound,” and al-Dhahabī agreed. Some scholars objected that the report comes only through Masrūq and that he did not hear directly from Muʿādh, which would make the chain broken. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr replied, “This ḥadith is firmly established with a continuous chain,” producing evidence that Masrūq did in fact meet Muʿādh. Ibn al-Qaṭṭān likewise stated that, according to the majority, the chain is connected.

Vocabulary
– Cow (baqara): baqar is a collective noun; baqara denotes a single animal, male or female. The feminine ending here merely marks “one of the genus.” Plural: baqarāt.
Biologists classify cattle within the family Bovidae, encompassing the bull and the buffalo. The term applies to both sexes and to domesticated as well as wild varieties.