Unfamiliar Expressions in the Hadith

1. His statement, “by Ayman”: this is how it appears in al-Musnad, Jāmiʿ al-Masānīd (7/409–410), and Aṭrāf al-Musnad (2/699). In Musnad Abū Yaʿlā, it reads, “by Umm Ayman,” while al-Bazzār has, “by some people.” Both are corruptions—Allah knows best—of the first reading. All three readings are absent from Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid, while al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, which includes the Musnad of ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥārith, has not yet been printed, so that we may use it to verify the correct reading. Ayman was the son of Umm Ayman and is mentioned among the Companions.

2. “Makhārīq” is the plural of mikhraq: a cloth that is wound up and with which children strike one another.

3. “Priests.” I say: it is the plural of qissīs, meaning a learned and devout man among the leading Christians, as stated in al-Mufradāt by al-Rāghib al-Aṣfahānī and others. It is as though they meant that they were devout ascetics given to excessiveness, just as the Jews and their followers call Muslims who adhere to their religion “extremists”! “Their hearts are alike!”

4. “After hardship”: this is how it appears in al-Musnad. In Abū Yaʿlā, it reads, “by my father,” and al-Haythamī likewise attributed this wording to him; but it appears there as “fatābī,” which is an obvious printing error. The correct wording is that found in al-Musnad. Ibn al-Athīr cited it under laʾy, saying: “That is, after hardship, exertion, and delay.” This means that, even so, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not seek forgiveness for them.

A Note on an Error by a Keen Scholar:

After al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar cited, in his Aṭrāf, the first portion of Aḥmad’s narration, he followed it