Sufyān (1) said—ʿAmr reported: “I heard (2) ʿIkrimah; Abū Hurayrah transmitted it to us.” ʿAlī added: “I said to Sufyān,” and he (3) said—
[ʿIkrimah said, ‘I heard Abū Hurayrah,’ and he related it.
‘Yes,’ I replied to Sufyān] (4):
“Someone has narrated—from ʿAmr, from ʿIkrimah, from Abū Hurayrah—raising the report to the Prophet, that he recited: farri gha (5).”
Sufyān commented, “This is exactly how ʿAmr recited it, though I do not know whether he actually heard it (6) that way or not. In any case, it is the reading we follow.”
As for what Aḥmad mentioned concerning the period of interruption and the subsequent resumption of revelation, groups of the early scholars said the same, as ʿAbd al-Razzāq (7) recorded in his Tafsīr (8), where he said, “Muʿammar informed us, on the authority of…”
(1) In the original manuscript S the phrase reads “fa-qāla” (he said); this same reading is confirmed by manuscript T and represents the correct text.
(2) In the original manuscript S the wording appears as “qāla ʿAmr, samiʿtu ʿAmr, samiʿtu” (he said ‘Amr, I heard ‘Amr, I heard), which is an error. The reading preserved in manuscript T is the correct one.
(3) In the autograph the wording is “qāla ʿAmr” (he said ‘Amr); this reading is supported by both manuscripts S and T and is the correct text.
(4) The material enclosed in brackets is omitted in manuscript S.
(5) In all extant copies the reading is “fazaʿ” (to be startled), as confirmed by Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and indicated by the context. The variant “faragha” (to have finished) was transmitted by Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī on the authority of al-Ḥasan, who is reported to have read: “ḥattā idhā faragha ʿan qulūbihim” with an r and gh. Al-Ṭabarī, however, concludes that the correct reading is with z and ʿayn (“fuzziʿa”), by consensus of the qurrāʾ (reciters) and the mufassirīn (exegetes). (See Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, 22:39.)
(6) In the original the phrase is “samiʿtuhu” (I heard him); this reading is confirmed by manuscripts S and T and is the correct text.
(7) The reading appears in the ʿAbd al-Razāq edition (manuscript T); it is erroneous, as explained above.
(8) The Tafsīr of ʿAbd al-Razāq remains extant only in manuscript form. For its locations and shelfmarks see F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 1/1, p. 185 (Qurʾānic and Ḥadīth sciences), which notes that “this work is essentially a revised version of the book by Muʿammar ibn Rāshid.” Al-Suyūṭī also transmits it in al-Durr al-manthūr (6:700), citing ʿAbd al-Razāq, Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abī Ḥātim on Q 7:179 (ḥattā idhā fuzziʿa ʿan qulūbihim). They explain that, because of the interval between ʿĪsā and Muḥammad (peace be upon them), revelation descended like the clang of iron—so startling the angels—and that “ḥattā idhā fuzziʿa ʿan qulūbihim” means “when it is cleared from their hearts,” followed by “mādhā qāla rabbukum qālū al-ḥaqqa wa huwa al-ʿaliyyu al-kabīr.”