JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

JAIS
ONLINE
Pavel Pavlovitch
yathbut) but eventually became reliable. 68 Even if Ibn Ḥajar’s comment
should be lent credence, it still leaves room for doubt in our specific
case. The traditions related by Ibn al-Jaʿd on the authority of Shuʿba
remain susceptible to criticism, since the audition must have taken place
exactly at the beginning of Ibn al-Jaʿd’s career as a traditionist.
The chronological problems that beset Ibn al-Jaʿd’s audition from
Shuʿba may be alleviated if one assumes the existence of an intermediate
written source. Ibn al-Jaʿd is known to have possessed books, which he
showed to a number of renowned Baghdādī traditionists. 69 Whether the
ʿUbāda tradition was part of these books is difficult to say; Ibn al-Jaʿd
does not provide any indication that he derived it from a written source.
169
A review of the other variant traditions that converge in potential
PCLs may provide more information about Shuʿba’s possible CL status.
After ʿAlī b. al-Jaʿd, the Baṣran traditionist Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar
Ghundar (d. 193/808–9) is the second most conspicuous candidate for a
PCL status. Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar is cited directly by Ibn Ḥanbal (d.
241/855), 70 whereas Muslim (d. 261/875), al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923) and al-
Bazzār (d. 292/904–5) 71 are all separated from him by the Baṣran jurist
Muḥammad b. al-Muthannā (see Diagram 1, p. 166). If a sufficient matn
consistency is established, the PCL status of Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar
Ghundar will be proved, which in turn will bolster Shuʿba’s chances of
being the actual CL of the tradition.
Ibn Ḥanbal cites a matn that in many respects resembles the tradition
found in the Musnad of Ibn al-Jaʿd:
“(1) Khudhū ʿan-nī! (2) Qad jaʿala l-lāh u la-hunna sabīl an . (3b) Althayyib
u bi-l-thayyib i (3a) wa-l-bikr u bi-l-bikr. (4b) Al-thayyib u yujlad wayurjam
(4a) wa-l-bikr u yujlad wa-yunfā.”
“(1) Take it from me! (2) Allāh has appointed a way for them. (3b) A nonvirgin
with a non-virgin (3a) and a virgin with a virgin. (4b) The non-
68 Ibn Ḥajar, ibid., 7:292.
69 Al-Khāṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh, 13:283; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, 20:344–
45; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, 9:290.
70 Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ and ʿĀdil Murshid, 50 vols. (1st
ed., Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risāla, 1416–/1996–), 37:400, no. 22730.
71 Muslim b. al-Ḥajjāj al-Naysābūrī, Ṣaḥīḥ, 18 vols. (2nd ed., Muʾassasat
Qurṭuba, 1994/1414), 11:273, no. 1690; al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ, 6:497; al-Bazzār, al-Baḥr
al-Zakhkhār al-Maʿrūf bi-Musnad al-Bazzār, ed. Maḥfūẓ al-Raḥmān Zayn Allāh,
13 vols. (1st ed., Beirut, Medina: Muʾassasat ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, Maktabat al-ʿUlūm
wa-l-Ḥikam, 1988/1409), 7:134, no. 2686.