LessonsReports of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd: Attribution, Conflicting Accounts and Evidence of CriticismQuiz

وَحَدَّثَنِي سَلَمَةُ بْنُ شَبِيبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا الْحُمَيْدِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا مُوسَى يَقُولُ: حَدَّثَنَا عَمْرُو بْنُ عُبَيْدٍ قَبْلَ أَنْ يُحْدِثَ.
Translation: Salamah b. Shabīb transmits through al-Ḥumaydī and Sufyān that Abū Mūsā said ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd narrated to them before he later introduced a new position.

Al-Nawawī takes «before he introduced» to refer to the period before the later Qadarī doctrinal change. It dates the reported transmission; it neither authenticates everything narrated during the earlier period nor licenses unqualified projection of a later criticism onto every earlier report.

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A temporal qualification: before he changed

Reports of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd: Attribution, Conflicting Accounts and Evidence of Criticism

وَحَدَّثَنِي سَلَمَةُ بْنُ شَبِيبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا الْحُمَيْدِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا مُوسَى يَقُولُ: حَدَّثَنَا عَمْرُو بْنُ عُبَيْدٍ قَبْلَ أَنْ يُحْدِثَ.
Translation: Salamah b. Shabīb transmits through al-Ḥumaydī and Sufyān that Abū Mūsā said ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd narrated to them before he later introduced a new position.

Al-Nawawī takes «before he introduced» to refer to the period before the later Qadarī doctrinal change. It dates the reported transmission; it neither authenticates everything narrated during the earlier period nor licenses unqualified projection of a later criticism onto every earlier report.