Among such cases is his saying, “We used to do such-and-such,” which, as noted earlier, is likewise treated as marfūʿ—i.e. ascribed to the Prophet.
Another example is when a Companion rules that a given act is obedience to Allah or to His Messenger, or disobedience; as in ʿAmmār’s statement, “Whoever fasts on the day about which people are uncertain has disobeyed Abū al-Qāsim ﷺ” (1). For this reason (2) it too is regarded (3) as marfūʿ, for the obvious assumption is that he received that ruling from the Prophet ﷺ (4).
[The Mawqūf Report and Its Categories]
Or the chain may terminate with the Companion himself (5); that is, as previously described (6), the wording makes it explicit that what is being transmitted is the Companion’s own statement, action, or tacit approval. Not every one of the earlier instances applies here, but most of them do.
Moreover, when drawing a comparison, equality in every single aspect is not a necessary condition (7)(8).
[Definition of a Companion]
And since this abridgement encompasses every branch of the sciences (9)(10)
(1) Al-Bukhari cites the report in suspended form (3/27); it is transmitted with a continuous chain by Abu Dawud (2334), al-Tirmidhi (686), al-Nasaʾi (2188), and Ibn Majah (1645).
(2) In MSS H and W the wording reads fa-hadha ("then this").
(3) MSS H, W and Z read hukmuhu ("its ruling").
(4) On the margin of MSS A, D and W, in the author’s own hand, appears: thumma balagha kadhalik ("then it likewise reached").
(5) MSS B, J and H read tantahi ("comes to an end"); the diacritical dots are lacking in A, H and L.
(6) MS D reads min ("from"); another copy, in a marginal note, has fi ("in").
(7) MSS H, W and T read tushtarat ("is stipulated"); the dots are missing in H.
(8) MSS A, B, H, Y and K, as well as a copy noted on the margin of D, read wajh ("aspect").
(9) The particle an is absent from MSS W, Z, Y and K. Al-Laqani, in Qadaʾ al-Watar (p. 1299), says: “Omitting an is correct, because lamma is restricted to past-tense verbal clauses, whether literally or by rule, whereas an forces an interpretation that turns the verb into a noun, which contradicts that.”
(10) The word ʿulum ("sciences") is not found in MS A.