that is sound, and I ask You for the best of what You know; I seek refuge in You from the evil of what You know; and I ask Your forgiveness for what You know. Truly, You alone are the Knower of the unseen. (1)
The same supplication is also reported through another chain.
Kutaybah related to us: Faraj ibn Faḍālah narrated to us, from Asad ibn Wadaʿah, from Shaddad ibn Aws:
Whenever he lay down on his bed he would toss and turn, sleep would not come to him, so he would say, “O Allah, the Fire has driven sleep from me.” He would then rise and pray until dawn. (2)
It is likewise transmitted by a group of narrators from Faraj, from Asad.
Salām ibn Miskīn said: Qatādah narrated to us that Shaddad ibn Aws once addressed the people and said:
“O people! This world is an imminent term; both the righteous and the wicked partake of it. The Hereafter, however, is a deferred term over which a Mighty King will judge. Know that every bit of goodness in its entirety is in Paradise, and that every bit of evil in its entirety is in the Fire.” (3)
All authorities agree that he died, as we have mentioned, in the year 58 AH, except for what is reported from some
(1) The chain of transmission contains two unknown narrators and is recorded in Tahdhib Ibn ʿAsakir, 6/291–292. Al-Tirmidhi (no. 3407) reproduced the supplication part only, in the “Invocations” section, chapter “Asking for steadfastness in affairs,” through the route of Abu al-ʿAla Yazid ibn al-Shikhir, from a man of Banu Hanzala, from Shaddad ibn Aws. Al-Nasaʾi also cited it (3/54) in the section on lapses in prayer, chapter “The supplication after remembrance,” and Ahmad (4/125) transmitted it while omitting the link between Ibn al-Shikhir and Shaddad ibn Aws. Hence the first isnad includes an unknown narrator and the second is broken, so the report is weak. Ahmad further reported it (4/123) via Ruh ibn ʿUbadah—al-Awzaʿi—Hassan ibn ʿAtiyyah, who said: “Shaddad used to …”; all the transmitters in this isnad are trustworthy, yet there is a gap between Hassan ibn ʿAtiyyah and Shaddad.
(2) Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 1/264, through Ibrahim ibn ʿAbd Allah from Muhammad ibn Ishaq with this same chain; Faraj ibn Fadalah is weak. The report is also found in Usd al-Ghabah, 2/507, and Tahdhib Ibn ʿAsakir, 6/293.
(3) Tahdhib Ibn ʿAsakir, 6/293; likewise in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 1/264, through a different chain.