The Gharānīq Story

Contents

1. Editorial note
2. 1. The Question and the Method
   • 1.1 Terms of ḥadīth criticism used in this paper
   • 1.2 Reading the trees
3. 2. The Routes and Their Grades
   • 2.1 Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: the mursal versions
   • 2.2 Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: the versions carried to Ibn ʿAbbās
   • 2.3 Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and the Medinan routes
   • 2.4 Abū al-ʿĀliya
   • 2.5 Qatāda
   • 2.6 Four mursal reports with sound chains
   • 2.7 The weaker families
4. 3. Those Who Affirmed the Story or Its Basis
   • 3.1 Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī
   • 3.2 Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb
   • 3.3 Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī
   • 3.4 al-Suyūṭī
   • 3.5 Ibn Taymiyya
5. 4. Exegetes Who Transmitted the Story
6. 5. Ibn Kathīr’s Objection
   • 5.1 Ibn Kathīr strengthens weak chains by one another
   • 5.2 The clearest example: Q 6:125
7. 6. Al-Albānī and the Flaw in His Reasoning
   • 6.1 Al-Albānī accepts the strengthening of routes
   • 6.2 The reasons al-Albānī gives for refusing corroboration
   • 6.3 The condition of distinct sources has a basis in al-Shāfiʿī
   • 6.4 Are there indications that the mursal reports are independent?
   • 6.5 Al-Albānī himself grants that irsāl can be repaired
   • 6.6 The verdict came before the method
8. 7. The Other Objections
   • 7.1 al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ
   • 7.2 Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī
   • 7.3 al-Bayhaqī
   • 7.4 Ibn Ḥazm
   • 7.5 al-Shawkānī
9. 8. What Must Be Kept Apart
10. 9. Conclusion
    • The weightier verdict
11. Appendix A. Narrator index