all my cotemporaries :'-and in these forms tradition is properly allowed to be reported; [d] license of a person who does not exist, as: 'I license whoever may be born to such a one-which ought not to be admitted, though, if one says: .... such a one and whoever may be born to him,' or '.... thee and thy posterity,' it is admissible, on the same principle as a permanent charitable bequest(); [e] license of a little child who is not marked by any maturity of mind; for maturity of mind constitutes a free permission to report, and the free permission of reporting holds good in respect to one who has not attained to years of intelligence as well as to one who has; [f] license as to what has been licensed, as: 'I license thee as to whatever has been licensed to me:' it is preferable, in the case of license, that both he who licenses and he who is licensed should be conversant with the science of tradition, because there is a looseness about this form of transmission, which requires to be controlled by persons so instructed: one who licenses by a writing does well to say off what he writes; yet, if he limits himself to the writing, that holds good; 4. by presentation ()-of which the highest sort [a] is that accompanied with license, which consists in the master's handing to one either an autograph, or a copy therewith collated, of what he hears read to him, and saying: This is what I hear read' (or, 'my report'), 'on the authority of such a one, I license to thee the reporting of it;' after which he leaves it in his hands, for his own, or until he can copy it; another sort of presentation [b] consists in the inquirer's handing to the master that which he hears read to him, which the latter then dwells upon with discrimination and attention, and afterwards presents to the inquirer, saying: It is my tradition' (or, 'what I hear read'), 'so report on my authority—this is called reverse presentation (L) and there are also other subdivisions; 5. by written communication (), which consists in the master's writing in his own hand, or permitting to be written, that which he hears read to him, expressly for one who is absent, or for one who is present; and is either accompanied with license, as, for example, when one writes: 'I license thee ....,' or without this form-to report in either mode is admissible and proper; 6. by certification (), which consists in the master's making known to the inquirer that a certain book is his report of tradition, without saying: 'Report it on my authority'-which is not an admissible reporting of it, according to the most proper view, since there is a possibility that the master may have recognized in the inquirer some pravity, in consequence of which he does not authorize him in respect to it; 7. by discovery (so)-a term of recent origin, from which consists in one's carefully reading some book in the handwriting of a master, which contains traditions, without receiving any report of of it other than is comprised in the traditions themselves, and then saying: 'I have found' (or, 'I have read') in the handwriting of such an one' (or, 'in a book of such an one, in his handwriting') as follows: “we learn from such an one as tradition so and so"-leaving the rest of the allegation of authority, and the text, at loose ends-a practice which has held its ground both in ancient and modern times, and

constitutes a sort of loosened tradition (w), with something in it of

(الاتصال) continuousness

"Some persons, be it known, are strict, and say that no legal proof can be made out from tradition not reported by memory; while others say that reporting by one's book is allowable, so long as one has it under his control. Others again are so lax as to say that one may report from copies not collated with their originals. The truth is that one becomes a reliable authority for tradition by the continued habit of taking it up, persevering effort at retention, and constant application to collating with an earlier text; and this, even if one's book is not controlled, since the probability is that it is not varied from, especially if the reporter be one who would be likely to know of any alteration of it."

The books of tradition show us a distinction of form which is supposed to refer to the mode of receiving traditional statements, in their use of the terms and, the former being appropriated, as is believed, to the case of a teacher's making an oral communication, and the latter to that of the pupil's reading to him. On this distinctive use of the two terms we quote the following from the Dictionary of the Technical Terms...:*

ومنهم من رأى التفرقة بين الصيغ بحسب افتراق التحمّل فيخصون التحديث بما تلفظ به الشيخ والاخبار بما يقرأ عليه وهذا مذهب ابن جريج والاوزاعى والشافعى وابن وهب وجمهور أهل المشرق ثم احدث أتباعهم تفصيلا اخرا من سمع وحده من لفظ الشيخ افرد فقال حدثنى ومن سمع من غيره جمع ومن قرأ بنفسه على الشيخ أفرد فقال أخبرني وهذا مستحسن وليس بواجب عندهم وأنما أرادوا التمييز بين احوال التحمل

"There are some who think that there should be a difference in the form of reporting tradition, with reference to a distinction in the mode of taking it up, and accordingly appropriate the expression to what the master gives out orally, and to what is read to him. Such was the doctrine of 'Ibn Juraij, 'al-'Auzâ'ì, 'ash-Shâfi'î, and 'Ibn Wahab, and of all the people of the West; and the later masters have originated another distinction, according to which whoever, himself alone, hears a master speak, uses the single number and says

and whoever hears as one of several uses the plural number, while he who

p. 282.

Ibn Juraij died A. H. 150; 'al-'Auza'î, one of the teachers of 'Ibn Juraij, and a resident of Bairût, d. A. H. 151; 'ash-Shafi'i, a native of Gaza, who became a resident of Egypt, and the founder of a school of Muslim law, d. A. H. 204; 'Ibn Wahab of Egypt d. A. H. 197. These dates are derived from the Kitab Tabakat al-Hufaz (v. 9, v. 20, vii. 36) ed. by Wüstenfeld under the title Liber Classium Virorum qui Korani et Traditionum Cognit. excell., auct. Abu Abdalla Dahabio. In epit. coegit et contin. Anonymus.... Gottinguæ, 1833-34: to which we shall refer hereafter, as we may have occasion, simply as the Kitab Tabakát.

himself reads to a master says in the singular number

which

is approved, though not necessary in the opinion of those just referred to, who only meant to distinguish between modes of taking up tradition."

A farther distinction of form in the reporting of tradition, which we find in the collections, is the use of instead of

,This is a comprehensive expression. اخبرني or حدثنی either

denoting of itself simply the fact of hearing from a master, without indication of the mode; but the technical phraseology of Muslim traditionists distinguishes it, in an artificial manner, from both the other expressions. Such seems, at least, to be the import

فيخبرون بالنزول :* : of the following words in Muslim's introduction narrating on the ascending grade [by أن نزلوا وبالصعود أن صعدوا

if they proceed upwards, and on the descending grade [سمعت ".if they proceed downwards اخبرنی or حدثني by]

In the extract from J. last given, it is stated that objection had been made by some to any reporting of tradition except by memory. We therefore present, here, from B., a statement of earlier opinion as to the propriety of reporting by the pupil's reading, and by the form called "presentation." It is to be found in that book of the Sahih which is entitled Book of the Science

باب القراءة والعرض على المحدّث

: كتاب العلم)

وراى الحسن والثورى ومالك القراءة جايزة واحتج بعضهم في القراءة على العالم بحديث ضمام بن ثعلبة قال للنبى صلى الله عليه وسلم الله أمرك أن نصلّى الصلاة قال نعم قال فهذه قراءة على النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أخبر ضمام قومه بذلك فاجازوه واحتج مالک بالصك يقرأ على القوم فيقولون أشهدنا فلانا ويقرأ على المقرى فيقول القارى اقرأني فلان حدثنا محمد بن سلام ثنا محمد بن الحسن الواسطى عن عوف عن الحسن قال لا باس اذا قرأ بالقراءة على العالم وحدثنا عبيد الله بن موسى عن سفيان قال اذا على المحدّث فلا باس أن يقول حدثنى وسمعت أبا عاصم يقول وسفيان القراءة على العالم وقراءته سواء حدثنا عبد الله بن أبي نمر انه سمع الليث عن سعيد هو المقبرى عن شريك بن عبد الله الله عنه يقول بينما نحن جلوس مع النبي صلى الله مالک رضی

انس بن

بن

عن

مالک

يوسف ثنا

عليه وسلم في المسجد دخل رجل على جمل فاناخه في المسجد ثم عقله

ثم قال لهم أيكم محمد والنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم متلى بين ظهرانيهم فقلنا هذا الرجل الابيض المتكى فقال له الرجل يا ابن عبد المطلب فقال له النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قد أجبتك فقال الرجل للنبي صلى الله عليه وسلم سايلك مشدّد عليك في المسيلة فلا تجد على في نفسك فقال سل عما بدا لک فقال اسألك بربک وربّ من قبلك الله ارسلك الى الناس كلهم فقال

اني

قال

اللهم نعم قال انشدك بالله الله أمرك أن نصلى الصلوات الخمس قال اللهم نعم قال انشدك بالله الله أمرك أن نصوم هذا الشهر من السنة قال اللهم نعم انشدك بالله الله امرك ان تخذ هذه الصدقة من اغنياينا فتقسمها على فقرائنا فقال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم اللهم نعم فقال الرجل امنت بما جيت به وانا رسول من وراءى من قومي وأنا ضمام بن ثعلبة أخو بني سعد بن بكر رواد موسى وعلى بن عبد الحميد عن سليمان عن ثابت عن أنس عن صلى الله عليه وسلم بهذا

الذي

باب ما يذكر فى المناولة وكتاب أهل العلم بالعلم الى البلدان وقال انس نسخ عثمان المصاحف فبعث بها الى الافاق ورأى عبد الله بن عمر ويحيى بن سعيد ومالك ذلك جايزا واحتج بعض أهل الحجاز في المناولة بحديث النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم حيث كتب لأمير السرية كتابا وقال لا تقرأ حتى تبلغ مكان كذ وكذا فلما بلغ ذلك المكان قرأه على الناس وأخبرهم بامر النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم حدثنا اسماعيل بن عبد الله حدثنی ابرهيم بن سعد عن صالح عن ابن شهاب عبيد الله عبد الله

عن

بن

بن

عتبة بن

مسعود أن عبد الله بن عباس رضى الله عنهما أخبره أن رسول الله صلى الله علیہ وسلم بعث بكتابه رجلا وأمره أن يدفعه الى عظيم البحرين فدفعه عظيم البحرين الى كسرى فلما قرأه مرقه فحسبت أن ابن المسيب قال فدعا عليهم رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يمزقوا كل محترق حدثنا محمد بن مقاتل أبو الحسن أنا عبد الله انا شعبة عن قنادة عن انس بن الله عنه قال كتب النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم كتابا او اراد ان يكتب فقيل له انهم لا يقرون كتابا الا مختوما فاتخذ خاتما من فضة نقشه محمد رسول الله كاني أنظر الى بياضه في يده فقلت لقتادة من قال نقشه محمد رسول الله

مالك رضى

قال أنس

"Chapter on Reading to and Laying before the Teacher of Tradition.

6

"Al-Hasan, 'ath-Thauri, and Mâlik* regarded the reading of tradition as allowable; and some have alleged, in favor of reading to a wellinformed teacher, a tradition of Dhimâm Bin Tha'labah, who said to the Prophet... Hath God commanded thee that we should pray with the prescribed form of prayer?' to which he replied: Yes, and the other rejoined: Then is this something to be read to the Prophet'of which Dhimâm informed his people, who accordingly regarded the incident as an authoritative guide. Mâlik adduces in proof the case of a judicial sentence which is read to people, who thereupon say: 'We call such a one to witness,' or which is read to one who causes it to be read, whereupon the reader says: 'Such a one made me read.'

"Muhammad Bin Salâm tells us for a tradition, as told by Muhammad Bin 'al-Hasan 'al-Wâsiți, on the authority of 'Auf, from 'al-Hasan : There is no harm in reading to a well-informed teacher;' and we are told by 'Ubaidallâh Bin Mûsa, from Sufyân, as follows: 'In case one reads to the teacher of tradition, there is no harm in his saying: "Such a one tells me for a tradition;" and I have heard from 'Abu-'Âşim, on the authority of Malik and Sufyan, the following: Reading to a wellinformed teacher and his reading are equivalent."

"Abdallah Bin Yûsuf tells us for a tradition, as told by 'al-Laith, on the authority of Sa'id, namely 'al-Makbari, on the authority of Sharik Bin 'Abdallah Bin 'Abû-Namir, that the latter heard 'Anas Bin Mâlik -to whom may God be gracious!-say: 'While we were seated with the Prophet... in the mosque, a man entered upon a camel, which he made kneel within the mosque, and afterwards fettered, and then said: "Which of you is Muhammad?"—the Prophet being supported in the midst of the group-to which we replied: "This pure man who leans here." Then the man said to him: "O son of Abd al-Mutallib—” and the Prophet... replied: "Be sure, I will answer thee;" upon which the man said to the Prophet. "I have a question to ask thee, and I insist upon an answer; so be not adverse to me," and the Prophet... said: "Ask about what thou wilt;" whereupon the man rejoined: "I ask thee, by thy Lord and the Lord of those before thee, hath God sent thee as a messenger to all men?" and the Prophet replied: "O God, yes;" the man said, again: "I adjure thee by God, hath God commanded thee that we should pray the five prayers?" and he replied: "O God, yes;" said the man: "I adjure thee by God, hath God commanded thee that we should fast this month of the year?" and he replied: "O God, yes;" said the man: "I adjure thee by God, hath God commanded thee to take this offering of alms from our rich men, and to divide it among our poor?" and the Prophet answered: "O God, yes." Then the man said: "I trust in thy message, and will be a messenger to those who shall come after me, of my people-and I am Dhimâm Bin Tha'labah, a brother of the tribe of Sa'ad Bin Bakr”—a

*'Ath-Thauri, of Kûfah, died A. H. 169; Mâlik Bin 'Anas of Hirah, the founder of one of the schools of Muslim law, who is probably the Mâlik here mentioned, died A. H. 179. See Kitab Tabakat, v. 40, 41.