was incomparably greater than rejoicing at a wedding or on Eid. Therefore, this ruling remains specific to him, peace and blessings be upon him, and no one else may be analogized to him, for that would amount to comparing blacksmiths to angels, as some have put it. A reconciliation along these lines was mentioned by Imam al-Khaṭṭābī in Maʿālim al-Sunan, and by the eminent scholar Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān in al-Rawḍah al-Nadiyyah (2 / 177–178).

2262 — “Any alliance made in the pre-Islamic period, adhere to it; but there is no alliance in Islam.”

Ahmad transmitted it (5 / 61) through two routes from Mughīrah, from his father, from Shuʿbah ibn al-Tawʾam, from Qays ibn ʿĀṣim, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of al-Bukhārī, apart from Shuʿbah ibn al-Tawʾam. A number of trustworthy narrators transmitted from him, and Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt and included this hadith, in abbreviated form, in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2060—Mawārid).

Mughīrah is Ibn Miqsam ibn Bajrah. The hadith has a corroborating report from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording but without the phrase, “adhere to it.” Muslim (7 / 183), Ahmad (4 / 83), and others transmitted it. There is another, similar report from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, which includes: “Fulfil the alliances of the pre-Islamic period.” Ibn Khuzaymah (232 / 1) and Ahmad (2 / 212–213) transmitted it. There is a further corroborating report with similar wording from Ibn ʿAbbās. Al-Dārimī (2 / 243), Ibn Ḥibbān (2061), and Ahmad (1 / 317 and 329) transmitted it.