125 - Chapter: How one prostrates

1084 - Isma'il ibn Mas'ud informed us, saying: Khalid narrated to us, from Shu'bah, from Abu Bishr, who said: I heard Yusuf — and he is Ibn Mahak — narrating
from Hakim ibn Hizam, who said: I pledged to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that I would not fall down [in prostration] except from a standing position.(1)

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= Also narrated by 'Ali ibn Salih, 'Umar ibn 'Ubayd, and Sufyan al-Thawri, as will follow under numbers (1322), (1323), and (1324), from Abu Ishaq, from Abu al-Ahwas 'Awf ibn Malik al-Jushami, from 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, may Allah be pleased with him, mentioning only the taslim [greeting of peace], and Sufyan al-Thawri is the most reliable of people in [narrating from] Abu Ishaq.

And it was narrated by al-Husayn ibn Waqid, from Abu Ishaq, from 'Alqamah, al-Aswad, and Abu al-Ahwas, from 'Abdullah, as will follow under number (1325), mentioning the taslim.

And it was narrated by al-Jarrah ibn Malih (the father of Waki'), from Abu Ishaq, from 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Aswad and 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Yazid, from 'Abdullah, mentioning the takbir at every lowering and raising, as in the Musnad of Ahmad (4225).

The hadith has other chains of transmission mentioned by al-Daraqutni in al-'Ilal 2/261, and he deemed excellent this narration of Zuhayr ibn Mu'awiyah from Abu Ishaq in the Sunan, following hadith (1348).

(1) Its chain is weak due to discontinuity: Yusuf ibn Mahak did not hear from Hakim ibn Hizam — according to what al-'Ala'i transmitted from Imam Ahmad in Jami' al-Tahsil (919) — for between them is 'Abdullah ibn 'Ismah. The narrators of the chain are trustworthy: Khalid is Ibn al-Harith, and Abu Bishr is Ja'far ibn Iyas. It is in al-Sunan al-Kubra under number (675).

Ahmad also narrated it (15312) from Muhammad ibn Ja'far, from Shu'bah, with this chain, and added at its end: He said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, a man asks me to sell [something] and I do not have it — shall I sell it to him? He said: "Do not sell what you do not possess." This addition will follow under number (4613) via the route of Hushaym, from Abu Bishr, from him.

His saying: "that I would not fall down" — from al-khurur, which means falling; that is: I do not fall down into prostration except from a standing position; that is, I return from bowing to standing, then fall from it into prostration, and I do not fall from bowing into it. This is the meaning understood by the compiler. Al-Sindi said this, and he mentioned other meanings, one of which is: I do not die except steadfast upon Islam. End quote. This is what Abu 'Ubayd favored in Gharib al-Hadith 2/130.