been carefully vetted by him, both in its chain of transmission and its wording, and that he recorded in it only what he judged sound. Abū ʿAlī narrated to us—then traced his chain back to Imām Aḥmad in the Musnad—who said: “Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar told us, Shuʿbah told us, from Abū al-Tayyāḥ, who said: I heard Abū Zurʿah relate from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘This clan of Quraysh will ruin my community.’ They asked, ‘What do you command us to do, Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘If only the people would keep away from them.’” (1)

ʿAbd Allāh (2) related: “During the illness in which my father died, he said to me, ‘Cross out this ḥadith, for it runs counter to the Prophet’s reports’—meaning his statement: ‘Listen and obey.’ ”

Abū Mūsā said: “Although the transmitters of its chain are trustworthy, once its wording diverged from the famous narrations he ordered that it be struck out. That, as we have said, proves our point, and there are other parallels.” (3)

I say: This does not mean that every ḥadith in the Musnad was, in his estimation, authentic. His decision to cross out this particular report—even though it is ṣaḥīḥ and included by the compilers of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections—was simply because, in his view, it contradicted other ḥadiths and the firmly established sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ that enjoins hearing and obeying, clinging to the community, and shunning isolation.