Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Maqdisī said: I heard Ibn Abī ʿAblah addressing those who had just returned from the campaign: “You have come back from the lesser jihad; but what have you done about the greater jihad—the jihad of the heart?”(1)
Ḍamrah said: Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ʿAblah passed away in 152 AH.
Some have reported that Ibn Abī ʿAblah transmitted roughly one hundred hadiths.
Al-Ṭabarānī compiled the book Hadith of the Syrian Shaykhs, and Ibn Abī ʿAblah’s musnad occupies seven folios—half of which are rejected reports on account of their chains leading to Ibrāhīm.
138 – Ibn Jurayj al-Umawī, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Jurayj * (ʿ): the Imām, the erudite authority, the ḥadith master, shaykh of the Sacred Precinct, Abū Khālid—also called Abū al-Walīd—the Qurashī, the Umayyad, the Meccan, author of numerous works,
(1) The hadith is cited in the Ihya. Al-ʿIraqi states that al-Bayhaqi transmitted it from Jabir with a weak chain. Al-Khatib records it in his History (13/493) with the wording: “When the Prophet, peace be upon him, returned from a campaign he said, ‘You have returned with the best return; you have come back from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad.’ They asked, ‘What is the greater jihad?’ He replied, ‘A servant’s struggle against his own desires.’”
Ibn Hajar remarks in Tasdid al-Qaws that, although this report is widely quoted, it is actually a saying of Ibrahim ibn Abi Ablah. I add that it also conflicts with the Qur’anic verse: “Do you consider giving water to pilgrims and maintaining the Sacred Mosque equal to one who believes in Allah and the Last Day and strives in the way of Allah? They are not equal in Allah’s sight, and Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people” (al-Tawbah 18).
(*) Further biographical sources: Khalifa, Tabaqat, 283; al-Bukhari, Tarikh, 5/422; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 2/98-99; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 5/356-357; Ibn Hibban, Mashahir ʿUlamaʾ al-Amsar, 145; al-Khatib, Tarikh Baghdad, 10/400; al-Shirazi, Tabaqat, fol. 18; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 5/594; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Aʿyan, 3/163-164; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, 857-858; Ibn Hajar, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 2/249/2 and Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 6/402-406; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 1/169-171; Mizaan al-Iʿtidal, 2/659; al-Dhahabi, al-ʿIbar, 1/213 and Tarikh, 6/96-97; Ibn al-Jazari, Ghayat al-Nihaya, 1/496; al-Fasi, al-ʿIqd al-Thamin, 5/508; al-Khazraji, Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, 244; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Mufassirin, 1/352.