ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said, “Abū Bakr came in first, ʿUmar was the runner-up, and then a tribulation overtook us.”⦗1⦘
A poet⦗2⦘, speaking of the sābiq (front-runner) and the musallī (runner-up), put it beautifully:
“If ever, for the sake of honour, a goal is raced for one day,
you will find among us the swift front-runners and those close behind.”
If the stake-setter were to announce: “To the mujallī⦗3⦘—the first place—one hundred; to the musallī—the second—ninety; to the tālī—the third—eighty; to the bāriʿ—the fourth—seventy; to the murtāḥ—the fifth—sixty; to the ḥaẓiyy—the sixth—fifty; to the ʿāṭif—the seventh—forty; to the muʾammal—the eighth—thirty; to the laṭīm—the ninth—twenty; to the sukayt—the tenth—ten; and to the fiskil—the last⦗4⦘—five,” the arrangement is valid, because
(1) Reported by Ahmad in al-Musnad, 1:124, 125, 147, and in Fadaʾil al-Sahaba, no. 241; by Abu Ubayd in Gharib al-Hadith, 3:458; and by others. Its isnad (chain of transmission) is sound.
(2) The narrator is Bishamah b. Hazn al-Nahshali, although other identifications have been proposed. See Ibn Qutaybah, Uyoon al-Akhbar, 1:190; and Khizanat al-Adab, 8:302–303. Note: the words “fi al-sabiq wa-al-musalli” are absent from Mss. H and Mt.
(3) Ms. Z has al-muhallil, which is incorrect; cf. Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni, 13:411.
(4) Abu Ubayd says in Gharib al-Hadith, 3:459: “Among those whose knowledge is trustworthy we have heard no specific names for the racing horses except the second and the tenth: the second is called al-musalli, and the tenth al-sukayt; the rest are simply called ‘the third,’ ‘the fourth,’ and so on up to =