Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAdiyy said: Abu al-ʿAlāʾ Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad in Egypt narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Dūlābī narrated to us; Naṣr ibn al-Mujaddir narrated to us; he said:
“I was present when Sharik was brought in, together with Abu Umayya. Abu Umayya had already informed al-Mahdi that Sharik had narrated to him—from al-Aʿmash, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Thawbān—that the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘Remain upright with Quraysh as long as they remain upright with you. When they deviate from the truth, place your swords upon your shoulders, then eradicate their green ranks.’ (1)
Al-Mahdi asked, ‘Did you relate this ḥadīth?’ He replied, ‘No.’
Abu Umayya then declared, ‘I pledge to walk to the House of Allah, and all my wealth is charity, if he did not relate it to me.’
Sharik said, ‘And I take upon myself the same pledge he has taken upon himself if I truly did relate it to him.’
Al-Mahdi seemed satisfied.
Abu Umayya added, ‘O Commander of the Believers! You have before you the craftiest of the Arabs. By “the same as what is upon me” he only means the clothes I’m wearing. Tell him to swear exactly as I have sworn.’
Al-Mahdi said, ‘Swear.’
Sharik then confessed, ‘I did narrate it to him.’
Al-Mahdi exclaimed, ‘Woe to me because of that wine-drinker!’—meaning al-Aʿmash, for he used to drink al-munaṣṣaf (2)—‘If I knew where his grave was, I would burn it!’
(1) Sharik is unreliable in memorisation, and Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd never heard directly from Thawban. Ahmad (Musnad, 5:277) transmits the report in abridged form through Wakiʿ, from al-Aʿmash, from Salim, from Thawban; al-Tabarani, al-Saghir, p. 74, records it through Shuʿba, from al-Aʿmash, from Salim. A parallel chain exists from al-Nuʿman ibn Bashir, cited by al-Haythami in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid, 5:228, who remarks: “Narrated by al-Tabarani and in its chain are transmitters I do not know.” The purport of the hadith is: obey them so long as they remain upright in religion and steadfast in Islam. Their khadraʾ (literally “green”) here means their sawad or dahmaʾ—i.e. the ordinary mass of people.
(2) Al-munassaf, with regard to beverages, is grape-must boiled until one half has evaporated. Al-Bukhari (Sahih, Book of Drinks, 10:56) cites without an isnad that al-Baraʾ and Abu Juhaifa drank it at the halfway stage. Ibn Hajar comments that the report of al-Baraʾ is found in Ibn Abi Shaybah, related by ʿAdi ibn Thabit, stating that he used to drink talaʾ (cooked must) when it had been reduced by half; the report of Abu Juhaifa is likewise in Ibn Abi Shaybah through Husayn ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman with the same wording. The same position was held by Jarir and Anas, and among the Successors by Ibn al-Hanafiyyah and Shurayh. All agree that if the drink produces intoxication, it is prohibited.