of the scholastic theologians, while all are absolutely certain that—exalted is He—“There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him” (Q 42:11).
Abū Maʿmar died in mid-Jumādā al-Ūlā in the year 236 AH; he was in his eighties.
Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh narrated to us—as I read to him—from Abū Rūḥ al-Harawī, who reported that Tamīm ibn Abī Saʿīd informed them; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān the littérateur narrated to us; Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān narrated to us; Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī narrated to us; Abū Maʿmar Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, from ʿAlī ibn Hāshim, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from Bakr ibn Wāʾil, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never struck anything with his hand at all, except when he was fighting in the path of Allah. Nor did he ever retaliate for anything done to him personally; he would only exact retribution when one of Allah’s sacred limits was violated, and then he would do so.” (1)
Al-Nasāʾī also recorded it—from Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī—from Abū Maʿmar.
28 – Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, Abū Zakariyyā al-Murrī, their client (B, M, D)
He is the Imām, the ḥāfiẓ, the master critic, the Shaykh of the hadith scholars: Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn.
(1) Its chain of transmission is strong. Muslim also reports it in his Sahih (no. 2328), Book of Merits, chapter “His, ﷺ, distance from sins,” through the isnad of Abu Kurayb – Abu Usama – Hisham b. Urwa – his father – Aisha: “The Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, never struck anything with his hand, neither a woman nor a servant, except when fighting in the path of Allah. He never took revenge for anything done to him personally, unless one of Allah’s sacred limits was violated; in that case he would retaliate for Allah’s sake.”
Al-Bukhari likewise records it in his Sahih, nos. 3560, 6126, 6786 and 6853, and Muslim (no. 2327) through the isnad of Malik b. Anas – Ibn Shihab – Urwa b. al-Zubayr – Aisha: “Whenever the Messenger of Allah, ﷺ, was given a choice between two matters, he would choose the easier of the two so long as it involved no sin; but if it entailed sin, he was the furthest of people from it. He never exacted revenge for himself, unless one of Allah’s sacred limits was breached, in which case he would take retribution for Allah.”
(*) Further sources: Ibn Saad, Tabaqat, 7/354; al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 8/307; al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 2/362; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Ta‘dil, 1/314, 318 and 9/192; Ibn al-Nadim, al-Fihrist, 287; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 14/177, 187; Ibn Abi Ya‘la, Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1/402, 407; al-Nawawi, Tadhhib al-Asma wa-l-Lughat, vol. 2, part 1.