Published by Maktabat al-Rushd; prepared and edited by Dr. ʿAwād ʿAbd Allāh al-Muʿtaq.
See pp. 213–220.
Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
Al-Khallāl declared, “I copied this book from the handwriting of ʿAbd Allāh, and ʿAbd Allāh copied it from the handwriting of his father.”
Judge Abū Yaʿlā, in his book Ibtāl al-Taʾwīl (The Nullification of Figurative Interpretation), cited it as evidence, quoting from it on the authority of Aḥmad. Ibn ʿAqīl likewise reported in his own work some of its contents attributed to Aḥmad. Aḥmad’s followers—both early and later—have transmitted from it, and al-Bayhaqī narrated material from it and ascribed it to Aḥmad. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah affirmed its authenticity as Aḥmad’s. No one among Aḥmad’s earlier or later companions has ever been heard to criticize it.
If someone objects: “This book is transmitted by Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, the protégé of al-Khallāl, from al-Khallāl, from al-Khaḍr ibn al-Muthannā, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, from his father. All of these are well-known imams except al-Khaḍr ibn al-Muthannā, who is unknown. How can you establish the book’s attribution to Aḥmad through an unidentified narrator?”—the answer has several angles.
First: Al-Khaḍr was known to al-Khallāl, who narrated from him just as he narrated statements of Abū ʿAbd Allāh through his companions and their companions; the fact that others do not know him does not undermine the narration.
Second: Al-Khallāl himself said, “I copied it from the handwriting of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, and ʿAbd Allāh copied it from the handwriting of his father.” It appears that al-Khallāl transmitted it through al-Khaḍr only because he wished to keep an uninterrupted chain, in keeping with the practice of the traditionists, while also supplementing that with his personal inspection of the manuscript. Al-Khaḍr was young when he heard it from ʿAbd Allāh and was neither among the long-lived scholars famous for knowledge nor counted among the shaykhs, yet al-Khallāl still narrated from him.