comparable to that of the specialists in this field, although he had a vast store of hadith and was a learned jurist (1).
The author said:
Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Basrī said: “The return of the sun after it had set calls all the more strongly for its transmission, for although it is a merit of the Commander of the Faithful, it is also one of the signs of prophethood. It differs from his other (2) merits in the many signs of prophethood it contains.”
I say:
This is among the clearest proofs that it is false. Hadith scholars narrated ‘Alī’s merits that are not signs of prophethood and included them in collections of authentic hadith, Sunan collections, and Musnad collections. They transmitted them from well-known, eminent, trustworthy scholars. Had this report been transmitted by trustworthy narrators, they would have been even more eager to narrate it and more intent than anyone else on [demonstrating] (3) its authenticity. Yet they found no one who narrated it through a chain whose transmitters were known for transmitting knowledge, nor were those transmitters known for their integrity and accuracy. Moreover, the report itself contains numerous indications (4) of its falsehood.
(1) He is Abū Ja‘far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salāma ibn Salama al-Azdī al-Hajarī al-Misrī al-Tahāwī, the jurist, imam, and hadith master who became the leading Hanafī scholar in Egypt. He was born and raised in Tahā in Upper Egypt. Born in 239 AH, he died in Cairo in 321 AH. His works include Sharh Ma‘ānī al-Āthār (Commentary on the Meanings of Reports), al-Mukhtasar fī al-Fiqh (Compendium of Jurisprudence), Manāqib Abī Hanīfa (The Merits of Abū Hanīfa), and Mushkil al-Āthār (Problematic Reports). For his biography, see Tadhkirat al-Huffāz, 3:808–810; al-Jawāhir al-Mudī’a, 1:102–105; Wafayāt al-A‘yān, 1:53–55; Lisān al-Mīzān, 1:274–282; and al-A‘lām, 1:197. See also what Ibn Hajar quotes from al-Bayhaqī in Lisān al-Mīzān, 1:277: “In al-Ma‘rifa, after citing and criticizing some remarks by al-Tahāwī concerning the hadith about touching the penis, al-Bayhaqī said: ‘I wished to explain his error in this matter.’ He passed over many similar instances. His remarks thus showed that hadith scholarship was not al-Tahāwī’s field of expertise: he merely took one statement after another from its specialists, without mastering them.”
(2) n, m, s: fī (“in”).
(3) Bayān (“demonstrating”) is omitted in (n), (s), and (b).
(4) n: al-kabīra (“major”).