Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 7167

Imam al-Sha'bi says: I was brought bound to al-Hajjaj. When I reached the gate of the palace, Yazid bin Abi Muslim met me and said: O Sha'bi, Inna lillah (we belong to Allah); you are a man of great knowledge, but today is not a day for intercession. Confess before the Amir to shirk and hypocrisy against yourself; then it is likely that you will be saved. Imam al-Sha'bi says: He coached me, and then Muhammad bin al-Hajjaj coached me and said to me something like what Yazid had said. When I was brought before al-Hajjaj, he said to me: O Sha'bi, are you one of those who rebelled against us and thought themselves great? I said: May Allah keep the Amir upright! Our dwelling became hard for us, the land around us became barren, the way grew narrow, we stayed awake all night, we lived in fear, and we fell into disgrace, there being among us neither righteous people who are pious nor wrongdoers who are strong. Al-Hajjaj said: He has spoken the truth. By Allah, they were neither righteous enough to rebel against us, nor strong enough against us when they did wrong. Release him! Imam al-Sha'bi says: Later he needed me in a matter of inheritance, so he sent for me and said: What do you say about a mother, a sister and a grandfather? I replied: Five of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) held differing views on this: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both). Al-Hajjaj asked: What did Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) say about it? He was indeed a precise scholar. Imam al-Sha'bi replied: He treated the grandfather as the father, gave the sister nothing and gave the mother one-third. Al-Hajjaj asked: What did Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) say about this case? I replied: He divided it into six shares, giving the sister three shares, the grandfather two shares and the mother one share. He asked: What did the Commander of the Faithful (that is, Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him)) say about this case? I said: He divided it into three shares. He asked: What did Sayyiduna Abu Turab (may Allah be pleased with him) say about this case? I said: He made six shares of it, giving the sister three shares, the mother two shares and the grandfather one share. He asked: What did Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) say about this case? I replied: He divided it into seven shares, giving the mother three shares, the grandfather two shares and the sister two shares. He said: Instruct the judge to give the ruling on this that the Commander of the Faithful (that is, Sayyiduna Uthman Ghani (may Allah be pleased with him)) gave.
Al-Bazzar recorded it, and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy). The one who narrates from Imam al-Sha'bi is Abbad bin Musa; he is not al-Khuttali, whom the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) used as evidence, but rather al-Ukli. Imam al-Dhahabi mentioned him in "al-Mizan", stating that his son Muhammad bin Abbad bin Musa bin Rashid, whose nickname is "Sandula", is the only one who narrates from him.
Al-Bayhaqi recorded this narration in his "Sunan" through his son Muhammad bin Abbad from him, and he inserted between him and Imam al-Sha'bi a narrator named Abu Bakr al-Hudhali, whose name is Sulma bin Abdullah. Ahmad, Yahya bin Ma'in, Abu Zur'ah and others declared him da'if (weak), and Ghundar called him a liar. However, his son Muhammad is not the only one who narrates from the narrator Abbad, for this same narration was recorded by al-Bazzar and al-Bayhaqi through Isa bin Yunus from this narrator. In one narration of al-Bayhaqi the wording is: Musa bin Abbad narrated to us; he said: Imam al-Sha'bi narrated this to us. On this basis, the chain of this narration is mudtarib (inconsistent).