Hadith Chapter Part B

Thus it is said to him: Then if the reason for your weakening the [Mu’an’an] report and your abandoning relying on it is due to the possibility of Irsāl in it, it obligates you to not affirm a chain of Mu’an’an until you see it has hearing [Simā’] from its first [transmitter] to its last. And according to us it is possible that the Ḥadīth [you described] which has come to us on authority of Hishām bin Urwah, on authority of his father, on authority of Ā’ishah- we know with certainty that Hishām heard from his father and that his father heard from Ā’ishah, just as we know that Ā’ishah heard from the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him- it is possible that when Hishām does not say in the transmission that he transmits on authority of his father the words ‘I heard’ or ‘He informed me’, that there could be between him and his father another person who informed [Hishām] of it on authority of his father in this transmission, and he did not hear it from his father when he preferred transmitting it Mursal, and it is not attributed to who he really heard it from. Just as that is possible from Hishām, on authority of his father, then it is also possible for his father on authority of Ā’ishah, and like that all chains for Ḥadīth in which the ‘hearing’ [of each transmitter] from the other is not mentioned. And if it was known in some transmissions that every single one of them did hear from his companion a great deal, then it is still possible for each one of them to drop in some of the transmissions, such that he hears from someone else some of his Ḥadīth, then expedites on authority [of his most famous companion] occasionally, while not designating who he [actually] heard from. And at times he is afraid and designates who he [actually] related the Ḥadīth from and abandons Irsāl. What we mention from this is found in Ḥadīth, from the actions of trustworthy Muhaddithīn and A’immah of Ahl ul-Ilm; and we will mention several of their transmissions upon the pathway which we mentioned demonstrating through them the great amount of [the above], if Allah, exalted is He, wills. Thus from that [are the following]: That Ayyūb as-Sakhtiyānī, Ibn al-Mubārak, Wakī’, Ibn Numayr, and a group of others transmitted on authority of Hishām bin Urwah, on authority of his father, on authority of Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, she said: ‘I applied scent to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings upon him, at the time of entering and leaving Ihrām, with the most pleasant [scent] I found’.