ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī reported: “My father narrated to us, from Khālid and Hishām, from Ibn Sīrīn, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘The Maghrib prayer is the witr of the daytime; so make the night prayer your witr as well (1).’
The ḥadith master Ibn ʿAdī, in his biographical entry on ʿAlī, cited several reports … until he said:
“Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sālim al-Bājaddāʾī (2) narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Quddūs ibn ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Bājaddāʾī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from Ḥumayd, from Anas:
‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “Whoever eats even a mouthful of clay has consumed a mouthful of swine flesh, and Allah will not care in what state he dies—whether as a Jew or a Christian.”’
He also related: ‘Whoever eats clay and bathes with it has eaten the flesh of his father Adam and bathed in his blood.’”
Ibn ʿAdī then remarked, “These two reports are false (3).”
I say: I am certain that ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim—may Allah have mercy on him—never transmitted them. Ibn ʿAdī erred when he quoted them here; they are sheer fabrications originating with al-Bājaddāʾī—may Allah disgrace him—(4).
The hadith of Abu Hurayra states: When the verse, “Whoever does evil will be requited for it” (4:123), was revealed, it weighed heavily upon the Muslims. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Seek moderation and strive for accuracy, for every misfortune that strikes a Muslim is an expiation, even a stumble he takes or a thorn that pricks him.”
(1) Al-Kamil, fol. 593; also transmitted by Ibn Abi Shayba, 2/282, and Ahmad, 2/30 and 41, both through the chain of Yazid b. Harun – Hisham b. Hassan – Muhammad b. Sirin – Ibn Umar. The chain is sound.
(2) In the base manuscript the word is vocalised with a damma on the letter jim, and the same reading appears in Tabsir al-Muntabih. Al-Lubab and Mu jam al-Buldan, however, record it with a fatha, linking it to Bajada, a village near Baghdad.
(3) Al-Kamil, fol. 593; the author also cites both reports in al-Mizan, 3/137.
(4) Al-Mizan reads: “Except for Ali b. Asim—may Allah have mercy on him—narrating the two reports, for I am certain he never transmitted them. It is astonishing that Ibn Adi, despite his learning, overlooked this; in my view the two reports were fabricated by Abd al-Quddus.” He adds in the entry on Abd al-Quddus b. Abd al-Qahir: “Unknown.”