And a musnad is a Companion’s marfūʿ report conveyed through an isnād whose outward appearance is continuous.
If the number of transmitters in that isnād is small, the chain will either terminate (1) with the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—or with an Imām of eminent rank, such as Shuʿbah. The first case is called absolute ʿulū (elevation), while the second is termed relative ʿulū (2).
Relative ʿulū includes:
• al-muwāfaqa (3): reaching the teacher of one of the compilers by a route other than the compiler’s own;
• al-badal (4): reaching the teacher of that teacher in the same manner (5);
• al-musāwāt (6): when the number (7) of links in one’s isnād (8) from the narrator to the end equals that of one of the compilers’ chains;
• al-muṣāfaḥa (9): when such equality exists with a student of that compiler.
The counterpart to ʿulū, in all its subdivisions (10), is nuzūl—namely, a chain that contains a greater number of intermediaries.
(1) MSS E and H read “yakun,” whereas the author’s commentary has “yantahi.”
(2) The word “al-ulu” (elevation) is absent from MSS B and Z.
(3) MS E adds the phrase “wahuwa.”
(4) MSS B, Z, and H contain the words “wa fihi al-badal” (and it includes substitution); this phrase, as well as the next two instances, belongs to Nuzhat al-Nazar.
(5) The word “kadhālika” (likewise) is missing in MS W.
(6) MSS B and Z read “wa fihi al-musawah” (and it includes equality).
(7) In MS J the word is vocalized “ʿadadu,” with a ḍamma on the dal; this is erroneous, for the word should be in the genitive as an annexed noun.
(8) MS J reads “al-isnadayn” (the two isnads), MS W “al-asānid” (the isnads), while Nuzhat al-Nazar has the singular “al-isnad.”
(9) MSS B and Z add “wa fihi al-musafaha” (and it includes handshaking).
(10) MS Z reads “bi-aqsam” (by categories). The author notes in Nuzhat al-Nazar: “It is the counterpart of al-ulu in all of its aforementioned forms.”