Those who nonetheless regarded it as acceptable (1) tended toward the view that the shaykh’s handing of the book to the student (2) serves the same function as his sending the volume (3) to him from one town to another (4).
A group of leading scholars (6) even held that narration based solely on written correspondence (5) is sound, even when that correspondence (7) is unaccompanied by an explicit license to transmit, as though the surrounding circumstance were proof enough.
For my part, I can detect no substantial difference between a shaykh’s placing the book (8) into the student’s hand and his dispatching it to him (9) from another location, so long as neither case includes an explicit authorization (10).
[Wijāda, testamentary bequest, and notification]
In the same vein, they have also required (11) permission in the case of wijāda: this occurs when a person discovers a text written in a hand whose author he recognizes (12)(13), whereupon he says, “I found this in the handwriting of So-and-so,” yet in that circumstance it is not permissible
(1) H reads “i‘tabara biha” (he took it into account).
(2) Z and M read “yaqum” (it/ he stands); D and W give the verb with both the ta- and ya- prefixes, and A leaves the word undotted.
(3) Ṭ reads “bi-l-kutub” (by means of books).
(4) Al-Ramahurmuzi traces the permissibility of munawala—handing a written text to someone for transmission—even without explicit permission, to certain adherents of the Zahiri school; see al-Muhaddith al-Fasil, p. 451.
(5) H, W, and Z read “bi-l-kitaba” (in writing).
(6) Among those who accepted this are Mansur ibn al-Mu‘tamir and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani; see al-Kifaya by al-Khatib, p. 337.
(7) A, B, Y, and L read “yaqtarin” (to be accompanied); a marginal copy in L has “yaqrin”.
(8) The word “al-kitaba” (the written text) is omitted in W and Z.
(9) Ṭ again reads “bi-l-kutub” (by the books).
(10) In the margin of D, in the author’s own hand, appears: “thumma balagha kadhalik” (and then it likewise reached).
(11) B reads “ishtarat” (he stipulated).
(12) H reads “tajid” (you will find); the copies A, هـ, and W leave the word without diacritical dots.
(13) H has “yu‘raf,” with damma on the ya and fatha on the ra (passive form); the adopted reading comes from J, D, W, and K. Al-Qari notes in Sharh Sharh al-Nukhba, p. 684, that the expression may be vocalised either in the active or in the passive.