Among them are Jābir—whose report is in al-Bukhārī and elsewhere—and Ḥudhayfah—whose report is in Muslim and elsewhere. The remainder of the ḥadith has numerous transmission-lines that strengthen one another; see al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr 1020–1082. I do, however, hesitate over its closing statement: “The first to enter Paradise will be the people of kindness,” for so far I have found only a single corroborating report for it, a narration of Abū Umāmah related by al-Ṭabarānī. Al-Haythamī comments: “Its chain contains a narrator I do not know.” Allah knows best.

Later I examined the chain myself and documented it in al-Ḍaʿīfah 5815, only to discover a bitter fact: it is the very same isnād that al-Munḏhirī and al-Haythamī had just graded ḥasan!

His words under the heading “The permissibility of giving away one’s entire wealth in charity” are: “It is narrated from Jābir that while we were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a man came holding something the size of a hen’s egg made of gold and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I obtained this from a mine; take it as charity—I possess nothing else.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ turned away from him … and then said, ‘One of you brings all his wealth and gives it away in charity, then sits afterward begging from people. Charity is only from surplus wealth.’” Abū Dāwūd and al-Ḥākim transmitted it, and al-Ḥākim said, “Authentic according to the criteria of Muslim,” even though the chain contains Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq.

I say: Ibn Isḥāq was a mudallis, and he narrated it with ʿanʿana; the versions of al-Dārimī and al-Bayhaqī are the same. Al-Nawawī states in al-Majmūʿ 6/236: “Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq is a mudallis, and when a mudallis uses the word ‘from’ (ʿan), his report is not accepted.”

For that reason the ḥadith is weak. Yet the specific phrase being cited—“Charity is only from surplus wealth”—is sound, for it has another chain from Jābir recorded by Aḥmad 3/346, and it is corroborated by a narration of Abū Hurayrah in al-Bukhārī and others, which I have traced in Irwāʾ 3/316.