Mudraj (interpolated report)

"Knowing the interpolated (mudraj) in hadith" is the twentieth type in Ibn al-Salah, who divides it by where the interpolation occurs and then states that none of it may be done deliberately. ^{1 2}

One kind is the insertion into the Prophet's hadith of words of one of its narrators: a Companion or later narrator adds, after what he relates, words of his own, and the next narrator relates them joined to the hadith without naming who said them, so that the matter becomes confused and everything is thought to be from the Messenger of God. ¹ A famous example is the tashahhud as related by Abu Khaythama Zuhayr ibn Mu'awiya from al-Hasan ibn al-Hurr from al-Qasim ibn Mukhaymira from Alqama from Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, ending "when you have said this you have completed your prayer; if you wish to stand, stand, and if you wish to sit, sit" — words of Ibn Mas'ud himself. The proof: Abd al-Rahman ibn Thabit ibn Thawban related it from al-Hasan ibn al-Hurr with these words set apart; Husayn al-Ju'fi, Ibn Ajlan and others omitted them; everyone who related the tashahhud from Alqama and others from Ibn Mas'ud agrees on this; and Shababa related it from Abu Khaythama with the words separated. ³

Another kind is when the narrator has the text by one chain except for one part, which he has by a second chain, and the one who relates from him merges it all under the first chain, dropping the second. ^{3 4} An example is the hadith of Ibn Uyayna and Za'ida ibn Qudama from Asim ibn Kulayb from his father from Wa'il ibn Hujr describing the Prophet's prayer, ending with Wa'il coming in winter and seeing people raising their hands under their garments; the correct version is that of those who kept the hand-raising apart, relating it from Asim from Abd al-Jabbar ibn Wa'il from some of his family from Wa'il. ⁴

Another is inserting into one hadith's text part of another hadith with a different chain, as in Sa'id ibn Abi Maryam's version from Malik from al-Zuhri from Anas: "do not hate one another, do not envy one another, do not turn your backs on one another, do not compete with one another" — "do not compete" was merged in by Ibn Abi Maryam from another hadith of Malik from Abu al-Zinad from al-A'raj from Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him). ⁴

Another is relating a hadith from several people whose chains differ without mentioning the difference, presenting their versions as agreeing, as when Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi and Muhammad ibn Kathir relate from al-Thawri from Mansur, al-A'mash and Wasil al-Ahdab from Abu Wa'il from Amr ibn Shurahbil from Ibn Mas'ud "which sin is greatest?", whereas Wasil related it from Abu Wa'il from Abd Allah without Amr ibn Shurahbil. ^{4 2}

Ibn al-Salah says it is not permitted to do any of these interpolations deliberately, and that al-Khatib wrote on the subject his al-Fasl li-l-Wasl al-Mudraj fi al-Naql, "which cured and sufficed". ²