JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 11 (2011)
verbal forms as the older units of expression. Al-Ṭayālisī and ʿAbd Allāh
b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal cite different parts of Qurʾān 4:15, which indicates
that Jarīr b. Ḥāzim may have cited the verse in toto. Consequently, his
version would have read:
*Unzilat “Qurʾān 4:15” fa-lammā rufiʿa l-waḥy u qāla rasūl u l-lāh i , ṣalʿam:
But how does this preamble relate to the prophetic dictum? What were
the Prophet’s words that followed? Why should the Prophet alter the
Quranic ordinance immediately after its revelation? Apparently, ʿAbd
Allāh b. Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal or his informant was aware of the problem; on
this account he preferred to add an interjectory clause according to which
the Prophet would, for some time, act in accordance with the Quranic
norm. Is this another indication that the revelation preamble was initially
independent from the penal maxim? Al-Ṭayālisī’s tradition provides
important evidence to this end.
In the Ḥaydarābād edition of al-Ṭayālisī’s Musnad the prophetic
dictum opens with the exclamation Khudhū ḥidhr a -kum! (Beware
yourselves!). In the edition of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī
the same clause reads, Khudhū! Khudhū! (Take it! Take it!). One may
hardly doubt that the second formulation is the earlier one. But how
should one assess its significance?
While analyzing Yazīd b. Hārūn’s tradition, I was puzzled by the
plural feminine pronouns (Khudhū-hunna! Iqbalū-hunna) at the
beginning of the prophetic dictum, which, I argued, might be interpreted
as referring to Quranic verses. The main difficulty, at which such a
hypothesis stumbles, is that no ʾQuranic verses are mentioned in the
tradition through Yazīd. If, however, we take the exclamation Khudhūhunna!
Iqbalū-hunna! from Yazīd’s narrative and position it mentally in
Jarīr b. Ḥāzim’s reconstructed matn, it will make perfect sense. The
following is an attempt to isolate the earliest wording of the revelation
preamble. Clause 1 of the hypothetical matn is based on Jarīr b. Ḥāzim’s
reconstructed matn; clause 2 belongs to Yazīd b. Hārūn’s tradition:
*(1) Unzilat “Qurʾān 4:15” fa-lammā rufiʿa l-waḥy u qāla rasūl u l-lāh i ,
ṣalʿam: (2) “Khudhū-hunna! Iqbalū-hunna!”
*(1) [The verse] “Qurʾān 4:15” was revealed and when the revelation was
withdrawn, the Messenger of Allāh, may Allāh bless him and grant him
peace, said: (2) “Take them [these verses]! Accept them [these verses]!”
Does this short exegetical tradition belong to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī? The
isnād and matn evidence points to the existence of a CL, Jarīr b. Ḥāzim.