so relate it on my authority, or, “I grant you permission to transmit it from me.” He then leaves the manuscript with the student—either transferring ownership, allowing him to copy it, or the like.
Another form is that the student hands his notebook of auditions to the shaykh; the shaykh, being knowledgeable and alert, examines it, returns it, and says, “This is my ḥadīth, or my narration; so relate it from me, or I authorize you to transmit it.” More than one leading ḥadīth master has called this practice ʿarḍ (presentation). Earlier we noted that reading the text aloud to the shaykh is likewise termed ʿarḍ; let this therefore be named the “presentation of munāwala,” and that the “presentation of reading.”
Al-Zuhrī, Rabīʿa, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, Mujāhid, al-Shaʿbī, ʿAlqama, Ibrāhīm, Abū l-ʿĀliya, Abū l-Zubayr, Abū l-Tawakkul, Mālik, Ibn Wahb, Ibn al-Qāsim, and many others regarded this munāwala as equal in strength to direct audition. The sounder view, however, is that it ranks below hearing and reading. This was stated by al-Thawrī, al-Awzāʿī, Ibn al-Mubārak, Abū Ḥanīfa, al-Shāfiʿī, al-Buwayṭī, al-Muzanī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, and Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā. Al-Ḥākim said, “This is what we have found our imams to practice, and it is the position we adopt. Allah knows best.”
Yet another variant is that the shaykh hands his audition to the student, authorizes him to transmit it, and then retains the document. This is inferior to the previous form. The student may narrate from it only if he later locates the book itself or a trustworthy copy collated with it and found to match what the ijāza covered, just as is required for a stand-alone ijāza. In such a case, this munāwala offers little advantage over an ijāza confined to a specific work. Some jurists and scholars of legal theory have said that it serves no purpose, whereas hadith specialists, both early and later, deem it to possess due merit.
A further scenario is that a student brings a book to the shaykh and says, “This is your transmission; hand it to me and authorize me to relate it.” The shaykh hands it over without examining it or verifying that it is indeed part of his transmission; this is invalid. If he is confident