71 – On the authority of ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him): “In the letter that Allah’s Messenger ﷺ wrote to ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm it is stated: ‘No one is to touch the Qur’an except one who is ritually pure.’” Mālik related it as a mursal report, while al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Ḥibbān supplied a connected chain, yet the report remains defective.⦗1⦘

Grade of the ḥadith:
The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (sound).

Nevertheless, the ḥadith specialists have disagreed over its authenticity. Abū Dāwūd said: “This ḥadith has been transmitted with a chain, but it is not sound; the narrator listed as Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd is a mistake—the correct name is Sulaymān ibn Arqam.” Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said the same, and was followed by Ṣāliḥ Jazrah and Abū’l-Ḥasan al-Harawī.

Al-Nasāʾī likewise remarked: “This is closer to the correct version,” meaning that the narrator is Sulaymān ibn Arqam.

Ibn Ḥazm said: “The document of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm is disconnected and cannot serve as proof, and Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd is unanimously abandoned.”

Ibn Ḥibbān observed: “Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Yamāmī is weak, whereas Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Khawlānī is reliable; both narrate from al-Zuhri. The person who transmitted the charity regulations is the Khawlānī. Those who graded the report weak did so only because they thought the narrator was al-Yamāmī.”

Ibn Ḥajar said: “Had it not already been shown that al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsa erred when he named the narrator as Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd—when in fact it is Sulaymān ibn Arqam—Ibn Ḥibbān’s statement would have weight.” The ḥadith was declared authentic by al-Ḥākim, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Bayhaqī, and it is related from Aḥmad that he said, “I hope it is sound.”