The suspended report (mu'allaq)

In [[work/nuzhat-al-nazar|Nuzhat al-Nazar]], Ibn Hajar classifies rejected reports by the cause of rejection: either something has dropped from the chain, or a narrator is impugned for his religious integrity or his precision. A drop may be at the beginning of the chain by a compiler's doing, at the end after the Successor, or elsewhere; the first is the suspended report (mu'allaq), whether one narrator is missing or more. ²

Forms of the suspended report include dropping the whole chain and saying, for example, "The Messenger of God said..."; dropping all but the Companion, or all but the Successor and the Companion; and dropping the compiler's own informant and attributing the report to the one above him. If that one was also a teacher of the compiler, there is disagreement whether it is still called suspension; Ibn Hajar's view is to distinguish: if it is known, by explicit statement or by study of his practice, that the compiler conceals, it is judged concealment (tadlis), and otherwise suspension. ³

Between the suspended and the [[concept/al-hadith-al-muadal|obscured (mu'dal)]] report there is a partial overlap: they meet where two or more are missing at the beginning, and the suspended report alone is defined as a compiler's omission at the start of the chain. ⁴

Suspension is listed among rejected reports because the omitted narrators are unknown; but a suspended report may be judged sound if they turn out, by another route, to be named. If the compiler says "all whom I omit are trustworthy", this falls under vouching for unnamed narrators, which the majority do not accept until the narrator is named. ⁵

Ibn Hajar quotes Ibn al-Salah: where omission occurs in a book committed to soundness, such as al-Bukhari's Sahih, what he gives in assertive form shows that its chain was established for him and was dropped for some purpose, while what he gives in non-assertive form is open to question; Ibn Hajar refers to his own al-Nukat 'ala Ibn al-Salah for examples. ⁵ The editor adds that the suspended reports in Muslim's Sahih are few, twelve in all, and all connected through sound routes elsewhere. ⁵

Overview

Ibn al-Salah discusses suspension (ta'liq) in the fourth appendix to the type of mu'dal, noting that Abu Abd Allah al-Humaydi, author of al-Jam' bayn al-Sahihayn, and other Maghribi scholars applied it to hadiths in al-Bukhari's Sahih whose chains are cut, and that al-Daraqutni had used it before them. ⁶

The status of al-Bukhari's suspended reports

Ibn al-Salah says such suspension looks like a break but does not take the ruling of one, and does not move what it touches from the sound to the weak, given what is known of al-Bukhari's conditions and judgements. ⁶ He rejects Ibn Hazm's dismissal of the hadith of Abu Amir or Abu Malik al-Ash'ari about people who will deem silk, wine and musical instruments lawful — Ibn Hazm held it broken between al-Bukhari and Hisham ibn Ammar because al-Bukhari wrote "Hisham ibn Ammar said" — saying Ibn Hazm erred in several ways and the hadith is sound and known to be connected on the conditions of the Sahih. ^{6 7} He explains that al-Bukhari may do this because the hadith is known through trustworthy narrators from the person he quotes, or because he gives it connected elsewhere in his book, or for other reasons involving no defect of a break. ⁷ The ruling applies to what he cites as primary material, not to what he cites as supporting evidence, where material outside the Sahih's conditions is tolerated. ⁸

Defining suspension

Ibn al-Salah found ta'liq used where one or more narrators are omitted from the start of a chain, some using it even when the whole chain is dropped, as in "the Messenger of God said", "Ibn Abbas said", or "al-Zuhri from Abu Salama from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him)…". ⁸ He did not find it used where narrators drop from the middle or end of a chain, nor for phrases like "it is narrated from so-and-so" or "it is mentioned from so-and-so" that carry no firm attribution. ⁹

"So-and-so said to me"

He heard that a later Maghribi scholar classed al-Bukhari's "so-and-so said to me" and "so-and-so added for us" as suspension connected in appearance but separate in substance, cited not as proof but as support; Ibn al-Salah answers with the words of Abu Ja'far ibn Hamdan al-Naysaburi, earlier and better acquainted with al-Bukhari: whenever al-Bukhari says "so-and-so said to me", it is by presentation and handing over. ^{8 9}

Derivation

Ibn al-Salah takes the term from the "suspending" of a wall or of a divorce, since all share a cut in continuity. ⁹