Our teacher, the Qur’an reciter Abū Bakr ibn Mihrān, informed us; Abū Nuʿaym ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad the jurist narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ghālib the perfume-seller narrated to us; Abū Qaṭan narrated to us; Shuʿbah, from Qatādah, from Khalās ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Rāfiʿ, from Abū Hurayrah, reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “If they only knew the merit that lies in the front row, they would cast lots for it.”
This report is singular; the only person who transmitted it was Abū Qaṭan ʿAmr ibn al-Haytham. Muslim also recorded it (1) through Ibn Ḥarb al-Nashāʾī from him. Abū Rāfiʿ’s given name was Nufayʿ the goldsmith.
Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh informed us, from ʿAbd al-Muʿizz; Zāhir informed us; Abū Saʿd al-Kanjurūdhī informed us; Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baḥīrī narrated to us; Abū Nuʿaym ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qurashī informed us, from Zuhayr ibn Muḥammad, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Let none of you say of the mosque: ‘little mosque (musayjid),’ for it is the House of Allah in which His name is mentioned. Let none of you say: ‘little muṣḥaf (muṣayḥif),’ for the Book of Allah is too great to be belittled. Let none of you say: ‘my slave (ʿabdī) or my bondwoman (amatī),’ for all of you are slaves and bondwomen. And let none of you call a man ‘ruwayjil’ (little fellow) or a woman ‘murayyah’ (little woman).”
This ḥadīth is munkar, bordering on fabricated. Zuhayr al-Tamīmī, though known for many oddities, could not possibly bear what it contains; rather, the defect lies with ʿĪsā (2), for he is not reliable.