Among the sections on mosques
His words on the virtue of building them: (2) Ahmad, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Bazzār transmit with an allegedly sound chain from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever builds a mosque for Allah, even if it is no bigger than a mafḥas qaṭāh—a sand-grouse’s nest for its eggs—Allah will build for him a house in Paradise.”

I say: No, its chain is not sound, for in the versions of Ahmad and al-Bazzār it contains Jābir al-Juʿfī, who is weak, as stated in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid. Ibn Ḥibbān, moreover, only recorded it in Mawārid (301) from Abū Dharr with this wording but without the phrase “for its eggs.” Al-Bazzār, al-Ṭaḥāwī in Mushkil al-Āthār, and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr all reported it in that form with a sound chain. It appears, then, that the author has confused two separate reports. The ḥadith is found with similar wording from a number of Companions— I have traced them in al-Thamar al-Mustaṭāb— yet none of them contain this additional clause, so it is irregular.

His statement under the heading “The supplication when setting out for it”: (d) Ahmad, Ibn Khuzaymah, and Ibn Mājah— and al-Ḥāfiẓ deemed it good— relate from Abū Saʿīd that the Prophet ﷺ said, “When a man leaves his house for the prayer and says, ‘O Allah, I ask You by the right of those who beg of You and by the right of my present walk, for I have not gone out in vain …’ ”

I reply: Rather, its chain is weak, for it is narrated by ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī, and he is weak. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar says of him in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful, but he makes many mistakes; he was a Shīʿī and a mudallis.” Furthermore, he transmits this ḥadith from Abū Saʿīd using the ʿan-formula, without explicitly stating that he heard it from him; this is a second defect. How, then, can the ḥadith be considered good?