‘So-and-so informed me by correspondence or in writing,’ and similar expressions. One must not use the unqualified formulas ḥaddathanā or akhbaranā in this context, although al-Layth, Manṣūr, and more than a few eminent ḥadith scholars deemed it permissible.

Section Six
Notifying the Student

This is when the teacher tells the student that a given ḥadith—or an entire book—is his own audition, restricted to him alone. Many scholars of ḥadith, jurisprudence, legal theory, and the literalist school allowed narration on this basis, among them Ibn Jurayj, Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh al-Shāfiʿī, and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Ghumarī (with a voiced ghayn), the Mālikī. Some of the Ẓāhirīs went so far as to say that even if the teacher were to declare, “This is my transmission; do not transmit it,” the student could still lawfully relate it from him. The sound position, however, as affirmed by several ḥadith experts and others, is that narration on this basis is not permissible, although acting upon it is obligatory if its chain is authentic.

Section Seven
Bequeathal

Bequeathal is when, at the time of his death or upon setting out on a journey, a transmitter entrusts a book that he narrates to another person. Some of the early generations allowed the legatee to narrate it from him, but this view is mistaken; the correct ruling is that it is not permissible.

Section Eight
Wajāda

Wajāda is a derivative of wajada—a coined term not attested in the classical Arabic lexicon. It refers to a situation in which someone comes across ḥadiths written in the handwriting of their transmitter even though the finder has not received them directly. In such a case he may say: “I found” or “I read…”