^8 Interestingly...

^8 Interestingly, even ‘Allamah al-Albani accepts its authenticity: صحيح Sahih ^9 Elsewhere, the ‘Allamah explains his decision: ثنا محمد بن أبي بكر المقدمي ثنا معتمر بن سليمان عن أبيه عن رقبة بن مسقلة عن أبي إسحاق عن سعيد بن جبير عن ابن عباس ‏عن أبي بن كعب عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال‏:‏ الغلام الذي قتله الخضر طبع كافرا‏.‏ إسناده صحيح على شرط الشيخين مع ما في النفس من عنعنة أبي إسحاق وهو عمرو ابن عبد الله السبيعي فإني لم أجد تصريحه بالتحديث في شيء من الروايات عنه مع أنه كان اختلط لكن لعل رقبة بن مسقلة سمعه منه قبل الاختلاط فإنه قديم الوفاة فقد مات سنة 129 وهي السنة التي مات فيها ابو إسحاق نفسه فهو من أقرانه.

Muhammad b. Abi Bakr al-Muqaddami – Mu’tamir b. Sulayman – his father – Raqabah b. Masqalah – Abu Ishaq – Sa’id b. Jubayr – Ibn ‘Abbas – Ubayy b. Ka’b – the Prophet, peace be upon him: “The boy killed by al-Khidhr was created an unbeliever.” Its chain is sahih upon the standard of the two Shaykhs , despite what is in the heart concerning its ‘an-‘an narration by Abu Ishaq, and his real name was ‘Amr b. ‘Abd Allah al-Sabi’i. I have NOT found any explicit tahdith (i.e.

non- ‘an **-** ‘an transmission) of it by him in the reports , despite that he also became confused. However, maybe Raqabah b. Masqalah heard it from him before he became confused because he (Raqabah) died early (in history). His (i.e. Raqabah’s) death was in 129 H, and it was the year of Abu Ishaq’s death too.

Therefore, they both were contemporaries.[^10] So, the ‘an-‘an report of Abu Ishaq is accepted as sahih upon the standard of both al-Bukhari and Muslim by the leading muhadithun of the Ahl al-Sunnah, including ‘Allamah al-Albani himself. But then, al-Hafiz (d. 852 H) documents a rather interesting dissenting viewpoint concerning Abu Ishaq’s ‘an-‘an reports: قال شعبة وكان أبو إسحاق إذا أخبرني عن رجل قلت له هذا أكبر منك فإن قال نعم علمت أنه لقى وإن قال انا أكبر منه تركته.

Shu’bah said: “Whenever Abu Ishaq narrated to me in an ‘an-‘an form from any person, I used to say to him, ‘Is he older than you?’ If he answered, ‘Yes’, then I would know that he met (the narrator) [i.e. there was no tadlis in the report]. But, if he said, ‘I am older than him’, I would abandon him.”[^11] In other words, Shu’bah assured us that wheneve r Abu Ishaq transmitted from people older than him, he never did tadlis , even if he narrated in an ‘an-‘an manner from them.

This is very crucial. Shu’bah was of an ultra-strict attitude towards Abu Ishaq’s tadlis .