Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmrawayh ibn ʿAlam al-Ṣaffār; and Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn Nīkhāb al-Ṭībī of Baghdad.
Ahmad ibn Hibat Allāh informed us; al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣaffār informed us; ʿĀʾishah bint Aḥmad informed us; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Bustī informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muzakkī informed us; the ascetic, leading scholar of his age, Abū al-Walīd Ḥassān ibn Muḥammad the jurist, narrated to us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Būshanjī narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr narrated to us; al-Layth narrated to me, from Ibn al-Hād, from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to supplicate in his prayer:
‘O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the punishment of the grave; I seek refuge in You from the trial of the False Messiah; I seek refuge in You from the trials of life and death; O Allah, I seek refuge in You from sin and crushing debt.’” (1) — and so on in the remainder of the ḥadīth.
278 – Ibn Ṭabāṭabā ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan*
The eminent sayyid, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan—son of the noble Ibn Ṭabāṭabā (2); his given name was Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥasan ibn
(1) The chain of transmission is sound. Al-Bukhari related the report under nos. 832 (The Description of Prayer) and 2397, and Muslim under no. 589 (The Book of Mosques, chapter: “From what refuge is sought in the prayer”), all through the line Abu al-Yaman → Shuayb → Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. Al-Bukhari also recorded it under nos. 2397, 6376 and 6377 through various routes from Hisham b. Urwa → his father Urwa → Aisha.
The term al-maghram (debt) comes from gharima, “to incur a liability.” Some scholars restrict it to money borrowed for an illicit purpose, or to a lawful loan that the borrower later cannot repay; others take the word in its broad, literal sense. The remainder of the hadith states: “Someone said to him, ‘You often seek refuge from debt.’ He replied, ‘When a man falls into debt, he speaks and lies, and he promises and breaks his word.’”
(*) Wafayat al-Ayan, vol. 3, pp. 81–83; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, vol. 11, p. 235.
(2) Pronounced with an open vowel on both ṭ’s and both b’s: this was the nickname of his grandfather Ibrahim. He received it because he lisped, turning the letter qaf into ṭa. One day he asked his servant for his clothes and said, “Shall I bring the daraa?” The servant replied…