- As for the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbas: it is narrated by Sammāk ibn Ḥarb, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, attributed to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).
It was recorded by Ibn Mājah (2339), al-Ṭaḥāwī (2/70), al-Bayhaqī (6/69 and 155), Ibn Abī Shaybah (3076), and Aḥmad (1/235, 303, 313, and 317), through several chains, including that of Sufyān al-Thawrī from Sammāk with this wording. One of Aḥmad’s versions, through Jābir from ʿIkrimah, additionally contains the term “mītāʾ” (the broad public thoroughfare), but this addition is rejected.
- As for the hadith of ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit: it is narrated by al-Bayhaqī (6/155) and ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad in his Zawāʾid (Supplementary Material) (5/326–327), by way of Isḥāq ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit, from him. He said:
“Among the judgments of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was that he ruled concerning an open space adjoining a road, when its owners wished to build on it, that seven cubits of it should be left for the road.” He said: “Such roads were called mītāʾ.”
I say: This is an interrupted, weak chain of transmission because of this Isḥāq. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb (The Abridgment):
“He transmits reports from ʿUbādah with a missing link, and his status is unknown.”
- As for the hadith of Anas: it is narrated by ʿAbbād ibn al-Manṣūr al-Nājī, from Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, from Abū Qilābah, from him. He said:
“The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) ruled concerning the mītāʾ road, which is approached from every direction, that, when its people seek authorization concerning it, its width is seven cubits.”