It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat 1/59/1060 according to my numbering, and by al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān 5/377–378 through two routes from him; on the strength of those chains al-Bayhaqī deemed the report sound. In his work Dhamm al-Malāhī he cites two further isnāds from him with a similar wording, Q 2/1 and 3/1, but I have refrained from mentioning them because they cannot be used for corroboration.

The seventh ḥadith: Abū Umāmah related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“It is not lawful to sell songstresses, to buy them, or to trade in them; their price is forbidden. He then added, ‘This verse was revealed about that matter: And among mankind are those who purchase idle speech … (to the end of the verse).’ By the One who sent me with the truth, whenever a man raises his voice in song, Allah sends two devils who climb up onto his shoulders and go on striking his chest with their feet”—he pointed to his own chest—“until it is he himself who falls silent.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr 8, nos. 7749, 7805, 7825, 7855, 7861, and 7862, through two chains going back to al-Qāsim b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān from him.

I had earlier included the report on the strength of those two isnāds in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 2922, but later it became clear to me that one of them is exceedingly weak, so I withdrew my judgment of reinforcement—except for the portion concerning the verse’s revelation, for that has supporting reports from a number of Companions. Some of these will be cited, Allah willing, in Chapter Eight, p. 142.