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or when both a verbal formula and a concomitant action occur together—for instance, his statement: “So-and-so related to me while holding his beard and said, ‘I believe in qadar (Divine Decree)…’ to the end (1).” This is called a musalsal, and musalsal is one of the qualities that pertain to the isnad.
Seriality may be present in only the greater part of a chain. A clear example is the hadith known as “the musalsal of primacy” (2): in that narration the sequence stops (3) with Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah alone, and anyone who reports it as musalsal all the way to the end of the chain has made a mistake (4)(5).
(1) A parallel instance is reported by al-Hakim in Maʿrifat ʿUlum al-Hadith, p. 32, and by Ibn ʿAsakir in his Tarikh, 23/208.
(2) MS A reads li-hadith (“for a hadith”), while J has ka-l-hadith (“like the hadith”).
(3) The word fihi (“in it”) is absent from B.
(4) B reads musalsilan (with a kasra on the second s), whereas the adopted reading follows D, T, K, and L.
(5) The report is found without the musalsal chain in Abu Dawud, Sunan, no. 4941, and al-Tirmidhi, Jamiʿ, no. 1924; it is given with the musalsal sequence by the hadith scholar Ibn ʿAsakir in his Tarikh, 29/11, and by al-Rafiʿi in al-Tadwin fi Akhbar Qazwin, 3/209.
In the margin of A, in the author’s own hand, is written: “then it reached [me] likewise,” and in the margin of D, also in his handwriting: “then it reached after recitation and study.”
أَوِ القَوْلِيَّةِ وَالفِعْلِيَّةِ مَعاً؛ كَقَوْلِهِ: حَدَّثَنِي فُلَانٌ وَهُوَ آخِذٌ بِلِحْيَتِهِ؛ قَالَ: آمَنْتُ بِالقَدَرِ … إِلَى آخِرِهِ (١)؛ (فَهُوَ المُسَلْسَلُ)؛ وَهُوَ مِنْ صِفَاتِ الإِسْنَادِ.
وَقَدْ يَقَعُ التَّسَلْسُلُ فِي مُعْظَمِ الإِسْنَادِ؛ كَحَدِيثِ (٢) المُسَلْسَلِ بِالأَوَّلِيَّةِ، فَإِنَّ السِّلْسِلَةَ تَنْتَهِي فِيهِ (٣) إِلَى سُفْيَانَ بْنِ عُيَيْنَةَ فَقَطْ، وَمَنْ رَوَاهُ مُسَلْسَلاً (٤) إِلَى مُنْتَهَاهُ فَقَدْ وَهِمَ (٥).
(١) ومثاله: ما أخرجه الحاكم في معرفة علوم الحديث (ص ٣٢)، وابن عساكر في تاريخه (٢٣/ ٢٠٨).
(٢) في أ: «لحديث»، وفي ج: «كالحديث».
(٣) «فِيهِ» ليست في ب.
(٤) في ب: «مسلسِلاً» بكسر السين الثانية، والمثبت من د، ط، ك، ل.
(٥) أخرجه أبو داود في السنن (٤٩٤١)، والترمذي في الجامع (١٩٢٤) من غير تسلسل، وأخرجه بالتسلسل الحافظ ابن عساكر في تاريخه (٢٩/ ١١)، والرافعي في التدوين في أخبار قزوين (٣/ ٢٠٩).
وفي حاشية أ - بخطِّ المُصنِّف -: «ثم بلغ كذلك»، وفي حاشية د - بخطِّه أيضا -: «ثم بلغ قراءةً وبحثاً».