—from Nuʿmān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, from Abū Saʿīd, who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘No servant fasts a single day in the path of Allah without Allah, by virtue of that day, pushing the Fire seventy years farther from his face.’ (1)
Using this same chain, my father narrated to me; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar told us; from Ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from Tāriq ibn Murraqqaʿ, from Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah: A man stole a cloak and was brought before the Prophet ﷺ, who ordered that his hand be severed.
The accuser said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have forgiven him.’
He replied, ‘If only that had been before you brought him to me, O Abū Wahb.’
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ nevertheless carried out the amputation. (2)
Both reports were also recorded by al-Nasāʾī in his Sunan (3) through the transmission of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, and thus reach us with an elevated chain.
258 – al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muthannā ibn Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh al-ʿAnbarī *
Abū Muḥammad, the brother of Muʿādh: one of the distinguished, trustworthy narrators.
He heard ḥadith from ʿAffān, Abū Ḥudhayfah al-Nahdī, and others.
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. It appears in the Musnad, 3/26, and—through the narration of Abu Saʿid—in al-Bukhari, 6/35 (Book of Jihad, “Chapter: Fasting in the Path of Allah”); Muslim, no. 1153 (Book of Fasting, “Chapter: The merit of fasting in the paths of Allah for one who can bear it”); and al-Tirmidhi, no. 1623. The same topic is also reported from Abu Hurayra in Ahmad, 2/357 and 526; al-Tirmidhi, no. 1622; and al-Nasaʾi, 4/172-173.
(2) The report is found in the Musnad, 3/401, and via additional chains from Safwan b. Umayya; see Musnad, 6/465-466; Abu Dawud, no. 4394; Ibn al-Jarud, no. 828; al-Darimi, 2/172; al-Nasaʾi, 8/68; al-Hakim, 4/380; al-Bayhaqi, 8/265; and al-Daraqutni, 3/204-205. It is an authentic hadith, declared reliable by several hadith experts, including al-Hakim, al-Dhahabi, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi.
(3) The first version is in 4/174 and the second in 8/68 under theft: “Chapter: A man who pardons a thief after bringing him before the imam,” where the variants from ʿAtaʾ in the hadith of Safwan b. Umayya are also discussed.
(*) Al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 3/39.