828 – On the authority of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) declared, “Walāʾ is a bond like the bond of lineage; it can neither be sold nor given away as a gift.” Al-Ḥākim narrated it through al-Shāfiʿī, from Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan, from Abū Yūsuf. Ibn Ḥibbān judged it authentic, while al-Bayhaqī considered it flawed. ⦗1⦘
Degree of authenticity
The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (sound). Ibn Ḥibbān included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, and it was also transmitted by al-Ḥākim and al-Shāfiʿī through the chain Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan → Abū Yūsuf. Ibn Ḥajar states in al-Talkhīṣ that Abū Nuʿaym collected the chains for the report, “The prohibition of selling or gifting walāʾ,” in the Musnad of ʿAbd Allāh b. Dīnār, relating it from some fifty—or more—of his students. Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr from ʿAbd Allāh b. Abī Awfā, and its outward chain appears sound. Al-Suyūṭī graded it authentic in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, and al-Albānī did likewise in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl.
Vocabulary
– “Walāʾ is a bond like the bond of lineage”: Linguistically, walāʾ (with an open wāw) means authority. Here it denotes walāʾ al-ʿitāqah—the bond created by manumission—arising from the emancipator’s kindness in granting freedom.
– “A bond like the bond of lineage”: luḥmah (with ḍammah on the lām and sukun on the ḥāʾ) signifies an attachment and connection, comparable to the attachment and connection of kinship.
Points derived from the ḥadith
- The walāʾ—pronounced with a fatḥah and an extended vowel—referred to here is the walāʾ of manumission, which is an agnatic bond whose cause is