JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 11 (2011)
ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal’s tradition through Shaybān b. Abī
Shayba Jārīr b. Ḥāzim is supplemental (ziyāda) to Aḥmad’s ḥadīth
corpus. Its revelation preamble differs quite notably:
(1a) Nazala ʿalā rasūl i l-lāh i , ṣalʿam, “wa-l-lātī yaʾtiyna l-fāḥishat a ” (1b)
Qāla [?]: “Fa-faʿala dhālika bi-hinna rasūl u l-lāh i , ṣalʿam (2a) Fa-bayn a -
mā rasūl u l-lāh i , ṣalʿam, jālis un wa-naḥnu ḥawl a -hu (2b) wa-kāna idhā
nazala ʿalay-hi l-waḥy u aʿraḍa ʿan-nā wa-aʿraḍnā ʿan-hu (2c) watarabbada
wajh u -hu wa-kuriba li-dhālika (3) fa-lammā rufiʿa ʿan-hu lwaḥy
u qāla.”
(1a) [The verse] “And those of your women who commit abomination”
was revealed to the Messenger of Allāh, may Allāh bless him and grant
him peace. (1b) [?] said: “And the Messenger of Allāh did this with them
(plural feminine). (2a) [One day] while the Messenger of Allāh, may Allāh
bless him and grant him peace, was sitting, and we were surrounding him
(2b) when the revelation came down upon him, he would turn away from
us and we would turn away from him (2c) and his face would grow pallid
and he would be overwhelmed by grief (3) when the revelation was
withdrawn from him, he said.”
Unlike al-Ṭayālisī’s matn, the narrative of ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad b.
Ḥanbal has undergone considerable fictionalization; together with the
variant of Yazīd b. Hārūn it features the most elaborate version of the
revelation preamble. Insofar as Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal does not seem to have
known this variant of the preamble, it should be attributed either to his
son, ʿAbd Allāh, or to his son’s informant, Shaybān b. Abī Shayba.
Despite the high degree of fictionalization, it is possible to divide ʿAbd
Allāh’s preamble into several textual layers. Even a cursory look at the
narrative suffices to show that the entire clause 2 is intrusive. It was
partly (clause 2c; wa-kāna idhā nazala ʿalay-hi l-waḥy u in clause 2b)
influenced by the other narratives in the revelation cluster, and partly
(clause 2a; aʿraḍa ʿan-nā wa-aʿraḍnā ʿan-hu in clause 2b) draws on
narratives that have not been observed in the other versions of the
revelation preamble, but are present in other zinā traditions. 135 Although
it is difficult to speculate about the exact origin of the intrusive clauses,
one should note that they do not form a single narrative unit. Clause 2b is
clearly disconnected from clause 2a. It is also disconnected from clause
1b, which, in turn, is an indubitable gloss at clause 1b. If we remove
135 Thus, a considerable number of traditions dealing with the voluntary
confession of Māʿiz b. Mālik state that the Prophet turned away from Māʿiz
(aʿraḍa ʿan-hu) upon his confession to adultery.