the reader how scant al-Aʿzami’s knowledge is, how little acquaintance he has with this discipline, and how limited his grasp of it. For he did not explain why Ahmad’s chain, rather than al-Bazzar’s, was declared authentic—namely, because the former contains an explicit declaration of transmission while the latter does not. Nor did he address the question of declaring it authentic, when it should properly have been graded sound, as we have done, owing to the well-known disagreement concerning Ibn Ishaq. Most of his annotations are of this sort: devoid of verification and knowledge, consisting merely of quotations that even beginners in this discipline—such as he and other bigoted Hanafis—are quite capable of producing. Yet some of them were not ashamed to work assiduously to nominate him, out of partisan zeal for him, for the Sunnah Award for the year (1400) from the Saudi state. How true is the saying: “Birds of a feather flock together!” It was instead awarded to the other al-Aʿzami; perhaps it found its proper place. Allah has His ways in His creation.

Moreover, the Prophet’s words, “Leave him, for one who has a right is entitled to speak,” also occur in abbreviated form in another incident, in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah recorded by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and others. It has been referenced in Ahadith al-Buyuʿ (Hadiths on Commercial Transactions).

The term Dhakhirah means the same as dhakhirah. Lisān al-ʿArab states: “Dhakhirah is the singular of dhakhāʾir, and denotes that which is stored away. Likewise, dhakhr, whose plural is adhkhār.” Al-Aʿzami did not recognize it and commented: “This is how it appears in the original, vocalized in handwriting; while al-Nihāyah states: ‘Dhakhirah is a well-known kind of date.’” I say: It is explained in Ahmad’s narration as ajwah dates, as you have seen. The phrase “those who fulfil and act graciously” means those who discharge what they owe willingly.