قُلْتُ لِلْحَكَمِ: مَا تَقُولُ فِي أَوْلَادِ الزِّنَا؟ قَالَ: يُصَلَّى عَلَيْهِمْ. قُلْتُ: مِنْ حَدِيثِ مَنْ يُرْوَى؟ قَالَ: يُرْوَى عَنِ الْحَسَنِ الْبَصْرِيِّ. فَقَالَ الْحَسَنُ بْنُ عُمَارَةَ: حَدَّثَنَا الْحَكَمُ عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ الْجَزَّارِ عَنْ عَلِيٍّ.
Translation: Shuʿbah continued: “I asked al-Ḥakam, ‘What do you say concerning children born outside marriage?’ He replied, ‘The funeral prayer is performed over them.’ I asked, ‘From whose report is this transmitted?’ He said, ‘It is transmitted from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī.’ Yet al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmārah said: ‘Al-Ḥakam narrated to us from Yaḥyā b. al-Jazzār, from ʿAlī.’”
The issue is the claimed provenance of this ruling, not only its substance. When Shuʿbah questioned al-Ḥakam himself, he cited al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī; al-Ḥasan b. ʿUmārah nevertheless attributed a route through the same teacher reaching ʿAlī. The comparison calls that particular route into question while leaving room to examine evidence of any distinct hearing.