The rare report ('aziz)

The 'aziz is the third class of report by number of chains for Ibn Hajar: one that no fewer than two relate from two. ² It is so called either because it is rare ('azza, "to be scarce"), or because it is strengthened ('azza, "to be strong") by coming through another chain. ² By "related by two" he means not by fewer than two: if more relate it at some points of the chain this does no harm, "since the smaller number decides over the larger". ³

Ibn Hajar rejects the claim that two narrators are a condition of soundness, held by Abu 'Ali al-Jubba'i of the Mu'tazila and suggested by al-Hakim's words in his 'Ulum al-Hadith. ² He relates that Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-'Arabi declared in his commentary on al-Bukhari that this was al-Bukhari's condition and answered the case of "actions are by intentions" by saying that 'Umar preached it from the pulpit before the Companions, who would have objected had they not known it; Ibn Hajar replies that their silence does not mean they had heard it from someone else, and that the report was transmitted by 'Alqama alone, then by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim alone, then by Yahya ibn Sa'id alone; he quotes Ibn Rushayd that the first report in al-Bukhari's book was enough to refute the claim. ⁴ The editor, Nur al-Din 'Itr, holds that al-Hakim meant that a Companion should have two transmitters to be free of being unknown, not that a report should have two. ²

Ibn Hajar relates Ibn Hibban's claim that two from two all the way down does not exist; he answers that if exactly two from exactly two is meant, this may be granted, but in the form he defined — not fewer than two from not fewer than two — it exists. ⁵ His example is the report given by both al-Bukhari and Muslim from Anas and by al-Bukhari from Abu Hurayra: "None of you believes until I am dearer to him than his father and his child"; from Anas it was related by Qatada and 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Suhayb, from Qatada by Shu'ba and Sa'id, from 'Abd al-'Aziz by Isma'il ibn 'Ulayya and 'Abd al-Warith, and from each of these by a group. ⁵

The editor notes that the standing of the 'aziz, like that of the mashhur, depends on whether the conditions of acceptance are met; it may be sound, good or weak. ²