Abu 'Ubayda's Narration from His Father in the Hadith of Khutbat al-Hajah: An Analytical Study of Direct Hearing and the Acceptance of Reports – Summary of a Peer-Reviewed Paper

Introduction

Praise be to Allah. This article is a summary of a peer-reviewed scholarly paper which Allah the Exalted made easy to be accepted and published in Majallat al-Istinad, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal issued by the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, in its eleventh issue for the year 2025.¹

This paper deals with one of the subtle questions of hadith scholarship: the narration of Abu ‘Ubayda from his father ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, and in particular in the hadith of “Khutbat al-Hajah” (the sermon of need). This narration has raised methodological questions concerning the condition of direct hearing (sama’), and the position of the imams of hadith criticism on accepting the narration of someone whose hearing has not been established although his contemporaneity has, especially when he narrates from his own father, who was one of the senior Companions.

The paper starts from a well-known problem among the hadith scholars: Did Abu ‘Ubayda hear from his father? What bearing does this have on the ruling on the hadith of “Khutbat al-Hajah”? How did the scholars deal with such narrations? Is a disconnected (munqati’) narration accepted if it circulates among trustworthy narrators from a household of narration? And is Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration of the hadith of Khutbat al-Hajah from Abu Musa al-Ash’ari, may Allah be pleased with him, sound?

The Paper’s Main Findings

• The hadith of Khutbat al-Hajah is established from the Prophet ﷺ, both as a marfu’ (Prophetic) and as a mawquf (Companion) report, through several routes, among them the route of ‘Abd Allah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him; Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration from his father is not the only source of it, rather the narrations corroborate one another in its wording and meaning.

• The preponderant view among the scholars is that Abu ‘Ubayda did not hear from his father; this was reported by a number of the early scholars, and many of the verifying scholars agreed with them.

• Nevertheless, Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration is considered hasan and acceptable, because it came from the people of his father’s household, who are trustworthy, which places it among the narrations of “trustworthy households”, a topic well known among the hadith scholars.

• Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration also came from some of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, from Ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him.

• Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration also came from some of the students of Ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, and his students were trustworthy and firmly reliable, so there is no problem in his narrating from them and no ground for criticism in that.

Recommendations

• The paper calls for deeper study of cases of non-hearing despite contemporaneity, especially when the narrator is from a household of narration, such as sons narrating from their fathers.

• It stresses the use of the analytical method in studying disputed chains of transmission, rather than being content with a general verdict.

• It stresses the need to encourage specialized research into narrators whose hearing is disputed.

• It calls for publishing verified studies on questions of chains of transmission and direct hearing, because of their effect in strengthening the precision of contemporary hadith methodology.

Conclusion

This paper deals with one manifestation of the problems in hadith narrations, namely the narration of someone who was contemporary with his teacher without his hearing from him being established, as appears in Abu ‘Ubayda’s narration from his father. The importance of this topic comes in light of the unmethodical handling of some narrations witnessed in the field of hadith, and the reliance on verdicts inconsistent with the rules of the specialists. Hence, the researcher hopes that this modest effort will contribute to reviving disciplined critical inquiry and strengthening the method of scholarly verification in the study of narrations, in a way that serves the Prophetic Sunnah and lays the foundation for a sound understanding based on verification and fairness. And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.