rather, it has the same standing as Prophetic hadiths and sacred hadiths: mass transmission is not a condition for them, although some of them are mass-transmitted, as is this one, which has been narrated by five Companions or more, as noted above.

The person referred to then said: “The term nurā in the hadith—with the letter nūn bearing a ḍammah—means ‘we suppose,’ and supposition is the opposite of certainty. It may, however, convey certainty when supported by a contextual indication, but no such indication exists here.” I say: This rests upon the condition he stipulated concerning abrogated recitation, and it is invalid, as you have already learned; and whatever is built upon what is invalid is itself invalid.

From the foregoing, you may also understand that his attempt to support his view with what he cited from al-Hafiz—namely, al-Hafiz’s explanation of their aforementioned supposition—does not benefit him in the least. Al-Hafiz mentioned it only among several possible explanations for some hadiths and did not rely upon it. Rather, he relied on the other explanation previously cited from him and ruled decisively on it, saying: “It is certainly among that whose recitation was abrogated, even though its ruling remains in force.” He supported this with the hadith of Abu Musa and the hadith of Jabir. I do not know how the person referred to could have overlooked this—especially when there are also the other hadiths mentioned earlier, which instil certainty that the text was Quran and that its recitation was subsequently abrogated. I think that he was unaware of them; had he known of them, he would not have said what he said. Otherwise, his statement indicates a sorry state indeed. We ask Allah for safety.

This discussion led me to trace the hadith, “If an elderly man and an elderly woman commit adultery, stone them without fail,” for it is among the best-known cases of abrogated recitation according to the scholars. I shall follow it with what al-Hafiz related from the Companions concerning abrogated recitation, so that the person referred to, and other hadith chain-tracers, may know that knowledge and understanding of the Quran and the sunnah are one thing, whereas the craft of tracing hadiths is another. Allah is the One Whose help is sought.