ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Kathīr, from al-ʿAlāʾ, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “No one opens for himself the door of begging without Allah opening for him a door of destitution.” (1)
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Yūnus informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar informed us; Abū al-Waqt ʿAbd al-Awwal informed us; Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; the ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī of Bīkand narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā al-Khuwārazmī al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Dimashqī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān al-Balkhī told me; Muḥammad ibn Nahshal al-Marwazī narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Masʿūd narrated to us; from ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, who said: “A child born of zina (out-of-wedlock intercourse) is not to record ḥadith.” (2)
I have examined a book by al-Sulaymānī in which he belittles leading scholars; therefore, whatever singularities it contains should not be accepted from him.
(1) ʿIsa ibn Mina, the Medinan Qurʾan-reciter, better known as Qalun, is firmly established in the science of qiraʾat; as a transmitter of hadith he is acceptable for corroboration, and the remaining narrators in the chain are trustworthy. Al-Suyuti cites the report in al-Jamiʿ al-Kabir, no. 935, attributing it to al-Tabari’s Tahdhib. Imam Ahmad records a fuller version (Musnad 2/436) via Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan → Ibn ʿAjlan → Saʿid ibn Abi Saʿid → Abu Hurayra: a man reviled Abu Bakr while the Prophet ﷺ was present; the Prophet looked on in amazement and smiled. When the man persisted, Abu Bakr answered some of the abuse, whereupon the Prophet became angry and left. Abu Bakr followed him and asked why he had departed. The Prophet replied: “An angel was answering on your behalf; when you spoke, Satan intervened, and I would not sit with Satan.” He then said: “Abu Bakr, three matters are certain: whoever overlooks a wrong done to him for Allah’s sake, Allah will strengthen his honor; whoever opens the door of giving, seeking thereby the bond of kinship, Allah will increase his wealth; and whoever opens the door of asking, seeking abundance, Allah will increase his poverty.” The chain is hasan (good). Parallel reports appear from Abu Kabsha ʿUmar ibn Saʿd al-Anmari in Ahmad 4/231, Tirmidhi 2335, and Ibn Majah 4228—Tirmidhi grades it hasan sahih, accurately so—and from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAwf in Ahmad 1/193 and al-Bazzar 929, though the latter contains an unnamed narrator.
(2) Did not Allah say: “No bearer shall bear the burden of another” (Quran 6:164)? Therefore, if a person born out of wedlock is a reliable memorizer, truthful and precise, he is, like any trustworthy narrator, recorded, transmitted from, and his knowledge is taken.