As for the first half of the ḥadith, it is sound, for it has numerous corroborating chains which I have documented in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, 1908, vol. 4, now in print.

His words: 2 – It is likewise reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “A Muslim’s charity increases his lifespan, averts an evil death, and through it Allah removes arrogance and pride.”

I say: This ḥadith was neither narrated by al-Tirmidhī nor graded ḥasan by him. It seems the author—may Allah preserve him—derived that claim from al-Munḏhirī’s remark when tracing the report:

“Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it via Kathīr ibn ʿAbd-Allāh, from his father, from his grandfather, from ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf. Al-Tirmidhī deemed this chain ḥasan, and Ibn Khuzaymah authenticated it—but for a wording other than this one.”

This clearly indicates that al-Tirmidhī did not actually include the present ḥadith; he merely called the same chain ḥasan in connection with a different text. The author, perhaps out of haste, seems to have overlooked al-Munḏhirī’s phrase “but for a different wording.” Reflect on this.

Furthermore, the ḥadith is weak—indeed very weak—because Kathīr is discarded (matrūk), as al-Dāraqutnī and others have said. Abū Dāwūd even called him “a pillar among the pillars of falsehood!”

Al-Tirmidhī’s declaring a report of his ḥasan is one of the instances of leniency for which he is known. Al-Dhahabī, in Kathīr’s biographical entry, writes:

“As for al-Tirmidhī, he narrated from him the report ‘Reconciliation is permissible among Muslims’ and declared it ṣaḥīḥ; for this reason the scholars do not rely on al-Tirmidhī’s authentications!”

However, the first sentence of the ḥadith is firmly established through another narration, as will be mentioned later.