- Shijnah: a branch of anything, as stated in al-Muʿjam al-Wasit. It may be pronounced with either u or i in its first vowel, as stated in al-Nihayah. In al-Targhib (3/226), Abu Ubayd said: “It means an interwoven kinship, like the intertwining of veins.”
2475 — “If you catch one rakʿah of the Dawn prayer before the sun rises, [and then it rises], add another rakʿah to it.”
Al-Tahawi (1/232), al-Bayhaqi (1/379)—whose version contains the addition—and Ahmad (2/236–489) narrated it through Saʿid ibn Abi ʿArubah, from Qatadah, from Khallas, from Abu Rafiʿ, from Abu Hurayrah, who related that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, meeting the criteria of both al-Bukhari and Muslim. Al-Kawthari, out of partisanship for his school, declared it defective in al-Nukat al-Tarifah (86), saying: “Its chain contains the ambiguous ‘from’ transmission of Ibn Abi ʿArubah and Qatadah, both of whom practised concealment in transmission.”
I say: Qatadah’s concealment in transmission was slight and excusable. This is why the two Shaykhs accepted him and cited him as proof without restriction, as al-Dhahabi has noted. Perhaps for this reason, al-Hafiz did not describe him in al-Taqrib as one who practised concealment in transmission, but said of him: “Trustworthy and firmly reliable.” Moreover, he explicitly used a direct-transmission formula, as will follow. Ibn Abi ʿArubah was among the most reliable narrators from Qatadah; yet he was not alone in reporting it, for Hammam corroborated him. He said: Qatadah was asked about a man who had prayed two rakʿahs of the Dawn prayer, and then the edge of the sun rose. He replied: Khallas narrated to me from Abu Rafiʿ that Abu Hurayrah narrated to him that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “He completes …”