the scholars (1).”
I say: His judgment (2) that this hadith is fabricated cannot be accepted. Abū Dāwūd (3) narrated it from Yazīd ibn Khālid ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mawhab al-Ramlī, who said: “Al-Mufaddal ibn Fadāla narrated to us, from (4) al-Layth ibn Sa‘d, from Hishām ibn Sa‘d, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Abū al-Tufayl, from Mu‘ādh”; he then related the hadith. Al-Mufaddal thus corroborated Qutayba’s narration. Although Qutayba was more distinguished than al-Mufaddal and had a better memory, he was therefore not the sole transmitter of this hadith.
Furthermore, Qutayba explicitly stated that he had heard it directly, saying, “He narrated to us,” rather than using the formula “from.” How, then, can his having heard it be called into question, given the stature Allah has granted him in accuracy of memory, honesty, reliability, and uprightness (5)?
(1) This Khālid al-Madā’inī is a discarded transmitter (matrūk), accused of lying. Commenting on this statement by al-Bukhārī in Qutayba’s biographical entry in his Tārīkh (History), 14:483, al-Khatīb al-Baghdādī said: “I say: No one other than Qutayba transmitted from al-Layth the hadith of Yazīd ibn Abī Habīb from Abū al-Tufayl. It is highly objectionable (munkar) as a narration of his. They believe that Khālid al-Madā’inī introduced it into al-Layth’s narrations and that Qutayba heard it together with him. Allah knows best.”
(2) The wāw (“and”) preceding “hukmuhu (his judgment)” is omitted in Sād.
(3) No. 1208.
(4) This is the reading in all the manuscript witnesses and printed editions. Al-Bayhaqī (3:162) and others likewise transmitted it through Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa from Abū Dāwūd with this chain. However, al-Lu’lu’ī’s transmission and most printed editions of Sunan Abī Dāwūd read “wa-l-Layth (and al-Layth).” The adopted reading is correct, as will be established in the source analysis of the hadith in the section on military expeditions (3:684).
(5) An objection to this chain is that al-Mufaddal is weak. Abū Dāwūd said—as the author will quote in the section on military expeditions (3:685)—“Al-Mufaddal’s hadith from al-Layth is an objectionable hadith (munkar).” Moreover, Hishām ibn Sa‘d is regarded as weak by the leading hadith scholars, as the author himself states there. He alone transmitted from Abū al-Zubayr these details concerning jam‘ al-taqdīm and jam‘ al-ta’khīr (combining prayers at the earlier or later prayer’s prescribed time). His account differs from those of several leading, reliable, and firmly established transmitters, including Mālik, al-Thawrī, Abū Khaythama, and others, who narrated it from Abū al-Zubayr without these details.