- “He offered the ʿaqīqah sacrifice for himself after he had been sent as a Prophet.”
It is narrated from Anas—may Allah be pleased with him—through two routes. The first is through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muḥarrar, from Qatādah, from him. It was recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzāq in al-Muṣannaf (4/329/7960), and through his route by Ibn Ḥibbān in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (2/33), al-Bazzār in his Musnad (2/74/1237—Kashf al-Astār), and Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (fol. 209/1). He said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muḥarrar’s narrations are not preserved.”
Al-Bazzār said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muḥarrar alone narrated it, and he is very weak. Reports from him are recorded only when they are not found through anyone else.” Al-Dhahabī cited it in his biography in al-Mīzān as one of his reprehensible narrations. In al-Talkhīṣ (4/147), al-Ḥāfiẓ attributed it to al-Bayhaqī and said: “He said: ‘It is rejected, and it contains ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muḥarrar, who is very weak. ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: They criticized him only because of this hadith.’ Al-Bayhaqī said: ‘It was narrated through another route from Qatādah, and through another route from Anas, but it is of no consequence.’”
I say: As for the other route from Qatādah, I have not seen it attributed to the Prophet; rather, it has only been reported that Qatādah used to give legal rulings in accordance with it, as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr related. Indeed, al-Bazzār and others stated categorically that ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muḥarrar was alone in narrating it from Qatādah. As for the other route from Anas, it was recorded by Abū al-Shaykh in al-Aḍāḥī, Ibn Aʿyun in his Muṣannaf, and al-Khallāl, through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muthannā....
I say: This is the route that follows, and a number of other, better-known scholars than those mentioned also recorded it, as will follow. The claim of sole transmission from Qatādah that was related will be refuted by the words of al-Ḥāfiẓ himself.