JOURNAL OF ARABIC AND ISLAMIC STUDIES

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Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 11 (2011)
out the possibility that the confusion occurred when Ibn Abī ʿArūba
suffered from memory deterioration (ikhtalaṭa) during the last eleven
years of his life, 137 but there is no confirmation that he related the
ʿUbāda tradition or parts thereof during that period of his life to al-
Qaṭṭān, Ibn Zurayʿ or any other traditionist.
It is also possible that like Shuʿba, Hushaym and al-Qaṭṭān, Ibn Abī
ʿArūba decided to transmit only the dual-penalty maxim from Qatāda’s
hypothetical compound tradition. If, however, neither Ibn Abī ʿArūba
nor Shuʿba, who are the PCLs of Qatāda, transmitted the revelation
preamble, this introduces a rupture in the transmission process. While
Ibn Abī ʿArūba and Shuʿba decided to rid their traditions of the
preamble, someone conversant with Qatāda’s compound version, would
have restored it and editied the compound narrative as to remove its
original incoherence. Do we have indications that such a development is
not a mere conjecture?
The evidence of the earliest ḥadīth collections
In addition to the evidence of the isnāds, which may be contradictory
and impossible to sort out, one should reckon with the earliest
collections that mention a given tradition. In the case of the revelation
tradition, I have already taken advantage of the traditions cited by Abū
Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī and ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī to uncover the earliest
version of the revelation preamble, which turned out to be an
independent exegetical tradition related by al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī. May one
use the same collections to reconstruct the history of the compound
tradition?
The earliest surviving ḥadīth collection that includes the compound
tradition is the Musnad of Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (d. 203–4/819–20).
Although al-Ṭayālisī has preserved the original citation of Qurʾān 4:15,
he adds to it two important clauses. In the first clause, which precedes
the citation of Qurʾān 4:15, al-Ṭayālisī states that when the revelation
came down upon the Prophet, the Companions would recognize this. In
the second clause, which comes after the citation of Qurʾān 4:15, al-
Ṭayālisī states that when the revelation was complete, the Prophet
uttered the dual-penalty maxim. This version of the preamble is free
from all elements of fictionalization that other traditionists borrowed
from external narratives on revelation. Consequently, it should be treated
as the earliest surviving instance of the compound narrative. The
137 Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt, 9:273. Ibn Abī ʿArūba’s illness began in 145/762–3 (Ibn
Ḥanbal, ʿIlal, 1:163, no. 86; 1:355, no. 677; 1:484, no. 1110; 2:355–6, no. 2572).