776 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The right of shufʿah is like untying the camel’s hobble.” Ibn Mājah and al-Bazzār narrated it, and al-Bazzār added: “There is no shufʿah for one who is absent.” Its chain of transmission is weak. (1)

Degree of the hadith:
The hadith is weak.
Al-Talkhīṣ states: Ibn Mājah and al-Bazzār transmitted it through the route of Ibn ʿUmar, and its isnād is extremely weak. Al-Bazzār said, “It was related by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Sulaymānī, whose narrations contain many anomalies,” and Ibn ʿAdī reported the judgment of weakness—both upon him and upon his shaykh.
Ibn Ḥibbān said, “It has no basis”; Abū Zurʿah declared it “denounced”; and al-Bayhaqī commented, “It is not established.”

Vocabulary of the hadith:
• ka-ḥalli al-ʿiqāl: ḥall, with a fatḥah and a shaddah, means the opposite of tightening.
• al-ʿiqāl: with a kasrah on the ʿayn and a fatḥah on the qāf, is the rope by which a camel’s leg is tied, usually fashioned as a loop. Untying the camel’s ʿiqāl sets it free; the intended meaning here is that shufʿah must be taken immediately.

Points derived from the hadith:
1 – The outward purport of the hadith indicates that shufʿah is to be claimed without delay. If the person entitled to it learns of the sale but does not promptly demand it, the opportunity passes and his right is lost.
Our jurists have said: The right of shufʿah must be exercised forthwith upon learning of it; if he fails to demand it once he knows