Tafseer of The Opening · Al-Faatiha · 1:6
Guide us to the straight path -
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: اهْدِنَا ("Guide us").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The meaning of His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path") in this place is, according to us: "Grant us the capacity to remain steadfast upon it," as is related from Ibn ʿAbbās:
173 – Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, he said: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jibrīl said to Muḥammad ﷺ: "Say, O Muḥammad: اهدنا الصراط المستقيم ('Guide us to the straight path').' He means: Inspire within us (alhimnā) the guiding way."
And His inspiring him with that way is His granting him the capacity for it (tawfīq), as we have said in our explanation. Its meaning is identical to the meaning of His word إياك نستعين ("You alone we ask for help"), in the sense that it is the servant's request to his Lord for the capacity to be steadfast in acting according to His obedience, and for hitting upon the truth and what is correct in that which He has commanded him and forbidden him — for what still awaits him in the rest of his life, not for what has already passed of his deeds and has elapsed in the past of his life. So too in His word إياك نستعين ("You alone we ask for help") it is a request from him to his Lord for assistance in fulfilling the obedience that He has made obligatory upon him, for what remains to him of his life.
Thus the meaning of the words becomes: "O Allah, You alone we worship, You who are One and have no partner, while we devote worship purely to You and not to the other gods and idols besides You; so assist us in Your worship, and grant us the capacity for that for which You have granted the capacity to those whom You have favored among Your prophets and the people of Your obedience — namely the way and the path."
If someone were to say: "Where in the language of the Arabs have you found the term hidāya ('guidance') in the meaning of tawfīq ('the granting of capacity')?",
he is answered: That is, in their language, too abundant and too clear for the number of testimonies related from them about it to be counted. Among that is the saying of the poet:
"Deny me not — may Allah guide you — my request, and let me not be like one who has perished in the journey."
By that he means: "May Allah grant you the capacity to provide for my need." Among that is also the saying of another:
"And do not hasten me — may the King guide you — for every situation has a fitting utterance."
It is known that he meant only: "May Allah grant you the capacity to hit upon what is correct in my matter."
Among that is also the word of Allah, exalted is His praise: وَاللَّهُ لا يَهْدِي الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِينَ ("And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people"), in more than one verse of His revelation. By this it is known that He did not mean that He does not make clear to the wrongdoers what duties rest upon them. How could that be the meaning, when He has made the exposition apply to all His creatures who are charged with duties? Rather He meant, exalted and mighty is He, that He does not grant them the capacity and does not open their breasts to the truth and to faith.
Some have claimed that the explanation of His word اهدِنا ("Guide us") is: "Increase us in guidance."
This position does not escape one of two matters: either the one who says it held that the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to ask for an increase in the exposition, or for an increase in the assistance and the capacity (tawfīq).
If he held that he was commanded to ask his Lord for an increase in the exposition, then that is untenable; for Allah, exalted is His praise, does not charge a servant with one of His duties except after He has expounded it to him and established the proof of it against him. And if its meaning were the meaning of asking for the exposition, then he would have been commanded to call upon his Lord to expound to him what He has imposed upon him — and that would be an unsound form of supplication, for He does not impose a duty without having expounded it to the one upon whom He imposes it. Or he would have been commanded to call upon his Lord to impose upon him the duties that He had not yet imposed upon him.
In the unsoundness of the notion that the servant would ask that of his Lord lies something that clarifies that the meaning of اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path") is not the meaning of: "Expound to us Your duties and Your limits."
Or he held that he was commanded to ask his Lord for an increase in the assistance and the capacity. If that is so, then his asking for that increase does not escape being either a request for an increase of assistance in what has already passed of his deeds, or in what is yet to happen.
In the falling away of the servant's need for assistance in what has already elapsed of his deeds lies something that makes known that the meaning of asking for that increase is only: asking for an increase for what is yet to happen of his deeds. And since that is so, the matter comes down to what we have described and said: namely that it is the servant's request to his Lord for the capacity to fulfill the duties with which he is charged, for what still awaits him in the rest of his life.
In the correctness of that lies the unsoundness of the position of the adherents of the doctrine of free volition (ahl al-qadar), who claim that everyone who is charged with a command or charged with a duty has already received so much assistance toward it that his need for his Lord regarding that duty has fallen away. For if the matter were as they say about it, then the meaning of the word of Allah, exalted is His praise, إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ * اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help * Guide us to the straight path") would be nullified. And in the correctness of its meaning, as we have expounded, lies the unsoundness of their position.
Some have claimed that the meaning of His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path") is: "Lead us in the Hereafter into the way of the Garden (janna)," that is to say: "Advance us toward it and conduct us to it," as He, exalted is His praise, said: فَاهْدُوهُمْ إِلَى صِرَاطِ الْجَحِيمِ [Surah al-Ṣāffāt: 23] ("Then lead them to the path of Hellfire"), that is to say: "Conduct them into the Fire" — as the woman is led (tuhdā) to her husband, by which is meant that she is brought in to him, and as the gift (al-hadiyya) is handed over to the man, and as the foot leads forward (tahdī) the lower leg. This is identical to the saying of Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd:
"After me the streams have played with it, and in its luster its gentle drizzle has flowed.
The young man has an intellect by which he lives, there where his foot leads forward his lower leg."
That is to say: where the foot, by means of it, makes for the watering places.
In the word of Allah, exalted is His praise, إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ("You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help") lies something that indicates the incorrectness of this explanation, in addition to the testimony of the proof of the exegetes that declares it incorrect. That is because all the exegetes among the Companions (ṣaḥāba) and the Successors (tābiʿūn) are in agreement that the meaning of الصِّرَاطَ ("the path") in this place is a meaning other than that which the proponent of this position has explained, and that His word إياك نستعين ("You alone we ask for help") is the servant's request to his Lord for assistance in His worship. So too His word اهْدِنا ("Guide us") is only the request for steadfastness in guidance for what remains to him in the rest of his life.
The Arabs say: hadaytu fulānan al-ṭarīq, and hadaytuhu li-l-ṭarīq, and hadaytuhu ilā al-ṭarīq ("I directed so-and-so to the way / I guided him to the way / I guided him toward the way"), when you have directed him to it and pointed it out to him. And in all these forms the Qurʾān has come. Allah, exalted is His praise, said: وَقَالُوا الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي هَدَانَا لِهَذَا [Surah al-Aʿrāf: 43] ("And they said: 'Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this'"), and He said in another place: اجْتَبَاهُ وَهَدَاهُ إِلَى صِرَاطٍ مُسْتَقِيمٍ [Surah al-Naḥl: 121] ("He chose him and guided him to a straight path"), and He said: اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path").
All this is widespread in their speech and present in their language. Among that is the saying of the poet:
"I ask Allah forgiveness for a sin I cannot count, the Lord of the servants — to Him are the striving and the work directed."
He means: astaghfiru Allāha li-dhanbin ("I ask Allah forgiveness for a sin"), as He, exalted is His praise, said: وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لِذَنْبِكَ [Surah Ghāfir: 55] ("And ask forgiveness for your sin").
Among that is also the saying of Nābigha of the Banū Dhubyān:
"He catches for us the wild ass, haughty in its galloping, before exhaustion, and the loudly barking gazelle."
He means: fa-yaṣīdu lanā ("he catches before us"). That occurs frequently in their poems and their speech, and in what we have mentioned of it there is sufficiency.
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The footnotes:
(112) This comes in its entirety, with the citation of its source, under number 179.
(113) I have not been able to establish the attribution of this verse, and I fear that it belongs to the verses of Wadqa al-Asadī, which he addressed to Maʿn ibn Zāʾida. Amālī al-Murtaḍā 1: 160.
(114) Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Salama attributed it in al-Fākhir: 253, and said: "The first to say that was Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd, in a poem in which he apologizes to ʿAmr ibn Hind." It is, however, not in his dīwān; see the proverbs of al-Maydānī 2: 125.
(115) That is to say: an unsound utterance. See the preceding, p. 165, no. 1.
(116) Irtafaʿa al-amr ("the matter has fallen away"): it has vanished and gone away, as though it had been present and posited and then fell away. Among that is: irtafaʿa al-khilāf baynahumā ("the disagreement between the two of them has fallen away").
(117) See p. 162, note no. 2.
(118) Dīwān al-sitta al-jāhiliyyīn: 234, 237. The first verse stands at the beginning of the poem and the last forms its conclusion. The pronoun in his word "laʿibat" ("they have played") refers to the abandoned dwelling place (al-rabʿ), in preceding verses. Rawnaq of the sword, of youth, and of the plant: its clarity, beauty, and luster. It is also related: "fī rīq". Rīq of youth: its beginning, its luster and freshness. He meant a fresh plant, as though he says: "in something with luster" or "in something with freshness." Al-riham — with kasra on the rāʾ — is the plural of rihma: that is the weak, continuous rainfall, which is beneficial to the plant. He says: the earth has become overgrown with grass, and the rainwater flowed glistening through the plant. The pronoun in "rihmahu" refers to the rain (al-ghayth), which is absent as though it had been mentioned.
(119) He says: wherever the young man goes, he lives by his intellect, his management, and his exertion.
(120) This occurs in the explanation of the verse of Surah Āl ʿImrān: 121, and the verse of Surah al-Qaṣaṣ: 88. See Sībawayh 1: 17, and al-Khizāna 1: 486. It belongs to the fifty verses of Sībawayh whose poet is not known. Al-Shantamarī said: "He meant min dhanbin ('for a sin'), omitted the preposition and connected the verb directly, and thus put it in the accusative." And al-dhanb here is a generic noun with the meaning of the plural; that is why he said: "lastu muḥṣiyahu" ("which I cannot count"). Al-wajh: the aim and the intention, in the sense of directing oneself.
(121) The verse is not in his dīwān. Of the qaṣīda there are verses in [the edition of] Muḥammad Jamāl: 23, and al-Mujtanā of Ibn Durayd: 23, in which he describes a horse. Al-ʿayr: the wild ass. Al-ḥuḍr: the intense galloping, and the wild ass gallops intensely. Al-wanā: exhaustion and slackening in the galloping or the work. Al-ashʿab: the gazelle whose two horns diverge and separate from each other with a great gap. Nabaḥa al-kalb wa-l-ẓaby wa-l-tays yanbaḥu nubāḥan, fa-huwa nabbāḥ ("the dog, the gazelle, and the buck bark"), when its crying increases out of friskiness and liveliness. The gazelle, when it grows old and its horns become branched, barks (al-Ḥayawān 1: 349). He describes his horse with the intensity of its galloping: it overtakes the wild ass that is haughty in its galloping, and the sturdy, swift gazelle, and catches them before exhaustion reaches it.
The explanation of His word: الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("the straight path").
Abū Jaʿfar said: The community of the people of explanation are all in agreement that "the straight path" is the clear way in which there is no crookedness. So too it is in the language of all the Arabs. Among that is the saying of Jarīr ibn ʿAṭiyya al-Khaṭafī:
"The Commander of the Believers is upon a path that is straight, even if the watering ways become crooked."
He means: upon the way of truth. Among that is also the saying of the Hudhalī poet Abū Dhuʾayb:
"We raided their land at daybreak with the cavalry, until we left it narrower than the path."
Among that is also the saying of the rajaz poet:
"Thus he was turned away from the clear track of the straight path."
The testimonies for it are too numerous to count, and in what we have mentioned there is sufficient wealth as against what we have left out.
Then the Arabs borrow the term "al-ṣirāṭ" and use it for every utterance and every deed that is characterized by straightness or crookedness; thus they characterize the straight by its straightness and the crooked by its crookedness.
What in my opinion is the most fitting explanation of this verse, I mean اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), is that by it is meant: "Grant us the capacity for steadfastness in that which is pleasing to You and for which You have granted the capacity to those whom You have favored among Your servants — in utterance and deed — and that is the straight path." For whoever is granted the capacity for that for which those were granted the capacity whom Allah has favored among the prophets, the truthful, and the witness-martyrs, he has been granted the capacity for Islam, for holding the messengers to be truthful, for clinging to the Book, for acting according to what Allah has commanded and refraining from what He has forbidden, for following the way of the Prophet ﷺ, and the way of Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī, and of every righteous servant of Allah. And all this belongs to the straight path.
The interpreters of the Qurʾān have differed about what is meant by "the straight path." The explanation that we have chosen comprehends the meanings of all of them therein.
Among what has been said about it is what is related from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, that he said — and he mentioned the Qurʾān — and said: "It is the straight path."
174 – Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī related that to us, he said: Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī related to us, on the authority of Ḥamza al-Zayyāt, on the authority of Abū al-Mukhtār al-Ṭāʾī, on the authority of the nephew (son of the brother) of al-Ḥārith, on the authority of al-Ḥārith, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ.
175 – And it was related to me on the authority of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Karīma, he said: Muḥammad ibn Salama related to us, on the authority of Abū Sinān, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Murra, on the authority of Abū al-Bakhtarī, on the authority of al-Ḥārith, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, the same.
176 – And Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Ḥamza al-Zayyāt related to us, on the authority of Abū al-Mukhtār al-Ṭāʾī, on the authority of the nephew of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, on the authority of al-Ḥārith, on the authority of ʿAlī, who said: "The straight path is the Book of Allah, exalted is His mention."
177 – Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Ahwāzī related to us, he said: Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī related to us, he said: Sufyān related to us — (h) — and Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī related to us, he said: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Wāʾil, who said: ʿAbd Allāh [ibn Masʿūd] said: "The straight path is the Book of Allah."
178 – Maḥmūd ibn Khidāsh al-Ṭālaqānī related to me, he said: Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ruʾāsī related to us, he said: ʿAlī and al-Ḥasan, the two sons of Ṣāliḥ, related to us both together, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "That is Islam." He said: "It is wider than what lies between the heaven and the earth."
179 – Abū Kurayb related to us, he said: ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related to us, he said: Bishr ibn ʿUmāra related to us, he said: Abū Rawq related to us, on the authority of al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Jibrīl said to Muḥammad ﷺ: "Say, O Muḥammad: اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ('Guide us to the straight path').' He means: Inspire within us the guiding way, and that is the religion of Allah in which there is no crookedness."
180 – Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Rāzī related to us, he said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAwf related to us, on the authority of al-Furāt ibn al-Sāʾib, on the authority of Maymūn ibn Mihrān, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "That is Islam."
181 – Maḥmūd ibn Khidāsh related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿa al-Kilābī related to us, on the authority of Ismāʿīl al-Azraq, on the authority of Abū ʿUmar al-Bazzār, on the authority of Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya, concerning His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "It is the religion of Allah from which He accepts nothing else from the servants."
182 – Mūsā ibn Hārūn al-Hamdānī related to me, he said: ʿAmr ibn Ṭalḥa al-Qannād related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī — in a report that he mentioned — on the authority of Abū Mālik, and on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās; and on the authority of Murra al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd; and on the authority of a number of people from the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ: اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "It is Islam."
183 – Al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan related to us, he said: al-Ḥusayn ibn Dāwūd related to us, he said: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, who said: Ibn ʿAbbās said concerning His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "The way."
184 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr Abū Ṣudayf al-Āmulī related to us, he said: Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim related to us, he said: Ḥamza ibn al-Mughīra related to us, on the authority of ʿĀṣim, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya, concerning His word اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "It is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and his two companions after him, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar." He [the transmitter] said: I mentioned that to al-Ḥasan, and he said: "Abū al-ʿĀliya has spoken the truth and given good counsel."
185 – Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam said: اهدنا الصراط المستقيم ("Guide us to the straight path"), he said: "Islam."
186 – Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ related to me, that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr related to him on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān al-Anṣārī, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that he said: "Allah has set forth as a parable a straight path." And the path is Islam.
187 – Al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī related to us, he said: al-Layth related to us, on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of his father, on the authority of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān al-Anṣārī, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, the same.
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah characterized it as straight only because it is what is correct, in which there is no error. Some of the people of foolishness have claimed that He called it "straight" (mustaqīm) because of its direct conducting of its people to the Garden. But that is an explanation contrary to the explanation of all the exegetes, and the agreement of all of them upon the opposite of it suffices as proof of its incorrectness.
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The footnotes:
(122) His dīwān: 507, in which he praises Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. Al-mawārid is the plural of mawrida: those are the ways to the water. He means the ways that people tread toward their aims and needs, as they tread the watering ways toward the water.
(123) It is not in his dīwān. Al-Qurṭubī attributed it in his tafsīr 1: 128 to ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl, but it is not in his dīwān. If it is Hudhalī, then it perhaps belongs to the poem of al-Mutanakhkhil, who has a qaṣīda in the dīwān of the Hudhalīs 2: 18–28 with this rhyme. ʿAmr ibn Maʿdīkarib has similar verses, related by al-Qālī in al-Nawādir 3: 191.
(124) Al-Qurṭubī related it in his tafsīr 1: 128 as "the clear path."
(125) Tarājimat al-Qurʾān: plural of turjumān ("interpreter"); he means the exegetes. See the preceding: 70, note: 1.
(126) Transmission 174 – Its isnād is very weak. Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Masrūqī: reliable (thiqa); from him al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Khuzayma, and others transmitted. He died in the year 258, and has a biography in al-Tahdhīb. Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī: that is Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Walīd, a well-known reliable transmitter; from him Aḥmad, Ibn Maʿīn, and others transmitted, and even Ibn ʿUyayna transmitted from him, although he was older than him. The authors of the six [canonical] works have transmitted from him. Ḥamza al-Zayyāt: that is Ḥamza ibn Ḥabīb, the well-known Qurʾān reciter. Some have criticized his transmission, but the correct view is that he is reliable, and Muslim transmitted from him in his Ṣaḥīḥ. Abū al-Mukhtār al-Ṭāʾī: it is said that his name was Saʿd; he is unknown (majhūl), declared as such by al-Madīnī and Abū Zurʿa. The nephew of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar: even more unknown than that; neither he nor his father is named. His uncle al-Ḥārith: that is Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Aʿwar al-Hamdānī, and he is very weak. The scholars differed strongly about him, so much so that al-Shaʿbī and others characterized him as "a liar"; I have, in the commentary on transmission 565 and others from the Musnad, preferred the judgment that he is very weak.
As for the matn of the transmission: Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted it — according to the meaning — on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn Yamān, on the authority of Ḥamza al-Zayyāt, with this isnād, as Ibn Kathīr 1: 50 conveyed; there, however, a scribal corruption occurred in the isnād. It is part of a long transmission about the excellence of the Qurʾān — transmitted by al-Tirmidhī (4: 51–52 of Tuḥfat al-Aḥwadhī), on the authority of ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, on the authority of Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī, with this isnād. Al-Tirmidhī said: "This is a strange (gharīb) transmission; we know it only from the transmission of Ḥamza al-Zayyāt, and its isnād is unknown, and in the transmission of al-Ḥārith there is a defect." Likewise al-Dārimī transmitted it in his Sunan 2: 435, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Yazīd al-Rifāʿī, on the authority of Ḥusayn al-Juʿfī. Al-Suyūṭī conveyed it 1: 15 and attributed it also to Ibn Abī Shayba, Ibn al-Anbārī in al-Maṣāḥif, and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-īmān. Al-Dhahabī referred to it in al-Mīzān 3: 380 in the biography of Abū al-Mukhtār al-Ṭāʾī, and said: "His transmission about the excellences of the Qurʾān is rejected (munkar)." Ibn Kathīr conveyed it in al-Faḍāʾil: 14–15 on the authority of al-Tirmidhī, and conveyed his weakening of it, and then said: "Ḥamza ibn Ḥabīb al-Zayyāt does not stand alone in its transmission; rather, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq also transmitted it, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, on the authority of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar. Thus Ḥamza is freed from responsibility for it — even if he is weak in transmission, he is an imam in Qurʾān recitation. The transmission is known from the transmission of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, about whom criticism has been voiced, and some have even accused him of lying on account of his opinion and creed; but that he deliberately lied in transmission — no. The most that this transmission can be is that it is a saying of the Commander of the Believers ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him; some have erred by raising it up to the Prophet. It is a fine, correct saying."
It follows under 175 and 176 with two other isnāds, as a saying of ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with him (mawqūf).
The transmission of Ibn Isḥāq — to which Ibn Kathīr referred — is the transmission of Aḥmad in the Musnad: 565, on the authority of Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq. We have weakened the isnād there, on account of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar and on account of the interruption between Ibn Isḥāq and Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb. In it there is not the phrase that occurs here, in the explanation of "the straight path."
(127) Transmission 175 – This is the preceding transmission with another isnād. This isnād is good (jayyid) up to al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, but after him the transmission is greatly weakened by him, as we said earlier.
Muḥammad ibn Salama: that is al-Bāhilī al-Ḥarrānī, he is reliable; from him Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and others transmitted, and Muslim transmitted from him in his Ṣaḥīḥ; he died in the year 191. His teacher Abū Sinān: that is Saʿīd ibn Sinān al-Shaybānī, he is reliable, and whoever criticized him did so only on account of a few errors of his; Abū Dāwūd said: "reliable, belonging to the eminent people," and Muslim transmitted from him in the Ṣaḥīḥ. ʿAmr ibn Murra: that is al-Murādī al-Jamalī, reliable and trusted without disagreement; Misʿar said: "ʿAmr belongs to the sources of truthfulness." Abū al-Bakhtarī — with fatḥa on the single bāʾ and the two-dotted tāʾ, with between them a dotted resting khāʾ: that is Saʿīd ibn Fayrūz al-Ṭāʾī al-Kūfī, a well-known reliable Successor (tābiʿī).
(128) Report 176 – This is the preceding transmission with the two isnāds before it, according to the meaning. But it is here raised up to Ibn Abī Ṭālib (mawqūf). The isnād to it is collapsed just like the isnād of 174, on account of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar and his nephew. As for those among them: Abū al-Mukhtār al-Ṭāʾī and Ḥamza have passed under 174, and Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī and Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq have passed under 159.
(129) Report 177 – This is a mawqūf saying of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd. Al-Ṭabarī transmitted it with two isnāds to Sufyān, that is al-Thawrī. As for the first: Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, on the authority of Sufyān al-Thawrī — that isnād is authentic (ṣaḥīḥ), without discussion. As for the second: Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd al-Rāzī, on the authority of Mihrān, that is Ibn Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAṭṭār — we have expounded at isnād 11 that in the transmission of Mihrān on the authority of al-Thawrī there is confusion (iḍṭirāb), but here he is supported in his transmission by a reliable ḥāfiẓ, namely Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī. Al-Thawrī transmitted it on the authority of Manṣūr, that is Ibn al-Muʿtamir al-Kūfī, and he is reliable, firm and authoritative; no one differs about him. Abū Wāʾil: that is Shaqīq ibn Salama al-Asadī, one of the great reliable Successors; Ibn Maʿīn said: "reliable; about one like him no question is raised."
This report was transmitted by al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak 2: 258 via ʿUmar ibn Saʿd Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥaḍrī, on the authority of al-Thawrī, with this isnād. He said: "This is an authentic transmission according to the standard of the two shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim], but they did not include it," and al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it 1: 15, and al-Shawkānī 1: 13.
(130) Report 178 – This is mawqūf, raised up to Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Its isnād is authentic: Maḥmūd ibn Khidāsh — with kasra on the dotted khāʾ, fatḥa on the undotted dāl, and at the end a dotted shīn — al-Ṭālaqānī: reliable, belonging to the people of truthfulness; he died on Wednesday 14 Shaʿbān of the year 250, as in al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr of al-Bukhārī: 247. Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ruʾāsī: reliable, firm and prudent; from him Aḥmad and other ḥāfiẓ's transmitted. Al-Ḥasan and ʿAlī, the two sons of Ṣāliḥ ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayy: both reliable; they are a twin pair of brothers. Whoever criticized al-Ḥasan did so without proof; we have declared him reliable in the Musnad: 2403, and his brother therein: 220. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl ibn Abī Ṭālib, whose mother was Zaynab al-Ṣughrā bint ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: a reliable Successor, and whoever criticized him has no proof.
The report was transmitted by al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak 2: 258–259, via Abū Nuʿaym, on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ — alone — with this isnād. He said: "This is a transmission with an authentic isnād, but they did not include it." Al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Ibn Kathīr mentioned it 1: 50, al-Suyūṭī 1: 15, and al-Shawkānī 1: 13.
(131) Transmission 179 – Its isnād is weak; the exposition of its weakness has passed: 137. This wording Ibn Kathīr conveyed 1: 50 without isnād and without attribution. Al-Suyūṭī conveyed it abridged 1: 14 and attributed it only to al-Ṭabarī.
(132) Report 180 – Its isnād is very weak, in addition to our unfamiliarity with the condition of some of its men: Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Rāzī, the teacher of al-Ṭabarī: we have not been able to establish with certainty which man this is. Perhaps it is "Mūsā ibn Sahl ibn Qādim, also called Ibn Mūsā Abū ʿUmar al-Ramlī, of Nasāʾī origin." He is a teacher of al-Ṭabarī with a biography in al-Tahdhīb 10: 347, but he was not designated as "al-Rāzī." In the manuscript it is written: "Sahl ibn Mūsā"! That biography too we have not found, and we prefer [the view] that it is a copyist's error. Yaḥyā ibn ʿAwf: we have nowhere in our available sources found a biography with this name. The defect of the isnād is "al-Furāt ibn al-Sāʾib al-Jazarī," and he is very weak; al-Bukhārī said in al-Kabīr 4/1/130: "They abandoned him, rejected in transmission," and so the imams said about him. Ibn Ḥibbān said in al-Majrūḥīn (on folio 187): "He belonged to those who transmit fabricated transmissions on the authority of the established reliable ones, and who bring the grave blunders on the authority of the reliable ones; it is not permitted to use him as proof, nor to transmit from him, nor to write down his transmission, except by way of examination." As for Maymūn ibn Mihrān: a well-known reliable Successor, an authoritative jurist.
This report Ibn Kathīr conveyed 1: 50 without citation of source, with the wording: "It is said: it is Islam." Al-Suyūṭī conveyed it 1: 15, attributed only to Ibn Jurayj, with a misprint therein: "Ibn Jurayj"!
(133) Transmission 181 – Ibn al-Ḥanafiyya: that is Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib; al-Ḥanafiyya is his mother, namely Khawla bint Jaʿfar of the Banū Ḥanīfa, after whom he is named. This isnād to him is weak: Muḥammad ibn Rabīʿa al-Kilābī al-Ruʾāsī: reliable, belonging to the teachers of Aḥmad and Ibn Maʿīn. Ismāʿīl al-Azraq: that is Ismāʿīl ibn Salmān, and he is weak; Ibn Maʿīn said: "His transmission is worth nothing," and Ibn Numayr and al-Nasāʾī said: "abandoned (matrūk)," and Ibn Ḥibbān said in the book al-Majrūḥīn (p. 78, no. 35): "He stands alone in rejected transmissions that he transmits on the authority of the well-known [transmitters]." Abū ʿUmar al-Bazzār: that is Dīnār ibn ʿUmar al-Asadī al-Kūfī, the blind one, and he is reliable. The transmission Ibn Kathīr mentioned 1: 51 without attribution and without isnād.
(134) Report 182 – This belongs to the tafsīr of al-Suddī, and the commentary on its isnād has passed: 168. Ibn Kathīr conveyed it 1: 50 and al-Suyūṭī 1: 15.
(135) Report 183 – Al-Suyūṭī conveyed it 1: 14, attributed to al-Ṭabarī and Ibn al-Mundhir. The beginning of this isnād has passed: 144, and it is here interrupted (munqaṭiʿ), for Ibn Jurayj did not meet Ibn ʿAbbās; he only transmits on the authority of the transmitters who transmit from him.
(136) Transmission 184 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr Abū Ṣudayf al-Āmulī, the teacher of al-Ṭabarī: I do not know who he is, and I have not found any mention of him, and I fear that there is a scribal corruption in it. Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim: that is Abū al-Naḍr — with the nūn and the dotted ṣād — the Khurāsānī ḥāfiẓ, the imam, the teacher of the imams: Aḥmad, Ibn Rāhawayh, Ibn al-Madīnī, Ibn Maʿīn, and others.
Ḥamza ibn al-Mughīra ibn Nashīṭ — with fatḥa on the nūn and kasra on the dotted shīn — al-Kūfī, the devout: reliable, with a biography in al-Tahdhīb; al-Bukhārī gave him a biography in al-Kabīr 2/1/44, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim 1/2/214–215, and Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt 443, and said: "Ḥamza ibn al-Mughīra, the devout, from Kūfa. He transmits on the authority of ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, on the authority of Abū al-ʿĀliya: اهدنا الصراط المستقيم ('Guide us to the straight path'), he said: 'It is the Prophet ﷺ and his two companions.' From him Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim transmitted." Here it stands in the sources: "Ḥamza ibn Abī al-Mughīra," and that is an error of the copyists.
ʿĀṣim: that is Ibn Sulaymān al-Aḥwal, a reliable, firm Successor. Abū al-ʿĀliya: that is al-Riyāḥī — with kasra on the rāʾ and light yāʾ — whose name is Rufayʿ — in diminutive form — ibn Mihrān, one of the great reliable Successors, about whose reliability there is agreement.
This transmission Ibn Kathīr mentioned 1: 51 and attributed it also to Ibn Abī Ḥātim. Al-Suyūṭī 1: 15 added the attribution to ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Ibn ʿAdī, and Ibn ʿAsākir. Abū al-ʿĀliya did not say it of himself: al-Ḥākim transmitted it in al-Mustadrak 2: 259 via Abū al-Naḍr with this isnād up to "Abū al-ʿĀliya, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās." He said: "This is a transmission with an authentic isnād, but they did not include it." Al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Al-Suyūṭī abridged it and attributed it only to al-Ḥākim.
(137) Transmission 185 – This belongs to the saying of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, and Ibn Kathīr conveyed it 1: 51 without attribution. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd: a late-comer, belonging to the followers of the Successors (atbāʿ al-tābiʿīn); he died in the year 182. He is very weak; I have expounded his weakness at the transmission in the Musnad: 5723. Of that the saying of Ibn Khuzayma suffices: "He does not belong to those whose transmission the people of knowledge use as proof, on account of his poor memory; he is a man whose vocation is devotion and asceticism, he does not belong to the seasoned experts of transmission."
(138) Transmissions 186, 187 – Al-Ṭabarī transmitted it on the authority of his teacher "al-Muthannā" with two isnāds, the first of which is one degree higher than the second: between al-Muthannā and Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ there stands in the first one teacher, and in the second two teachers.
As for al-Muthannā, the teacher of al-Ṭabarī: that is al-Muthannā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Āmulī, from whom al-Ṭabarī transmits much in the tafsīr and the history. Abū Ṣāliḥ, in the first isnād: that is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī, the scribe of al-Layth ibn Saʿd, whose companion he was for twenty years. He is reliable, and whoever criticized him — over a part of his transmission on the authority of al-Layth — did so without proof. He has a good biography in al-Tahdhīb, and likewise in al-Jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl of Ibn Abī Ḥātim 2/2/86–87, and Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ 1: 351–353. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ was born in the year 137 and died in the year 222. The year of birth is stated in al-Tahdhīb [as] (173), and that is a misprint; the correct one is in Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ. Ādam al-ʿAsqalānī, in the second isnād: that is Ādam ibn Abī Iyās, and he is reliable, trusted and devout, one of the best servants of Allah, as Abū Ḥātim said. Al-Layth: that is Ibn Saʿd, the imam of the people of Egypt. Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ, in both isnāds: that is al-Ḥimṣī, one of the eminent ones and judge of al-Andalus, reliable; whoever criticized him erred. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr — with diminutive form in both — al-Ḥaḍramī al-Ḥimṣī: a reliable Successor. And his father: one of the great Successors, who lived through the time of the Prophet ﷺ. He is reliable and well-known for his knowledge, and al-Ṭabarī mentioned him in the Classes of the Jurists (Ṭabaqāt al-fuqahāʾ). Al-Nawwās — with fatḥa on the nūn and doubling of the wāw — ibn Samʿān al-Kilābī: a well-known Companion (ṣaḥābī).
This transmission is an abridgment of a long transmission, transmitted by Aḥmad in the Musnad: 17711 (vol. 4, p. 182, Ḥalabī edition), on the authority of al-Ḥasan ibn Sawwār, on the authority of al-Layth ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Muʿāwiya ibn Ṣāliḥ, with it. Ibn Kathīr conveyed it 1: 51 from the transmission of the Musnad, and said: "Thus Ibn Abī Ḥātim and Ibn Jarīr [al-Ṭabarī] transmitted it from the transmission of al-Layth ibn Saʿd, with it. And al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī both transmitted it on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr ibn Baqiyya, on the authority of Bujayr ibn Saʿd, on the authority of Khālid ibn Maʿdān, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Nufayr, on the authority of al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān, with it. And it is a good, authentic isnād (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ)." Al-Suyūṭī attributed it 1: 15, and al-Shawkānī 1: 13, also to al-Ḥākim — "and he declared it authentic" — and to others.
