On the morning (1) of al-ʿAqabah, while he was mounted on his she-camel, the Prophet ﷺ said, “Pick up some pebbles for me.” I therefore gathered seven pebbles for him—small stones (2) of the kind used for skipping. He rolled them about in his palm and said, “With stones like these, cast your pebbles.” He then proclaimed, “People, beware of excess in religion; it was only excess in religion that ruined those who came before you.”
This ḥadīth was reported by Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah (3) through the chain of ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīlah (4) from Ziyād ibn Ḥuṣayn (5) from Abū ʿĀliyah, from Ibn ʿAbbās (6). The isnād is sound according to the criteria of Muslim.
His statement, “Beware (7) of excess in religion,” is general, encompassing every form of extremism—whether in creed or in practice.
Excess (ghulū) is to overstep the proper limit by praising or condemning something more than it deserves (8), and the like.
(1) MS A reads: ghada; the final hāʾ seems to have been inadvertently dropped.
(2) The printed edition has: mithl ("like"), contrary to the transmitted versions of the ḥadīth, which read min ("of") in one report of Aḥmad and hun ("them") in Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah.
(3) See: Musnad Aḥmad, 1/215 and 347 (within the Musnad of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbās); Sunan Ibn Mājah, Book of Pilgrimage Rites, chapter “The size of the stoning pebbles,” ḥadīth no. 3029, 2/1008; and Sunan al-Nasāʾī, Book of Pilgrimage Rites, chapter “Picking up the pebbles,” 5/268.
(4) This is ʿAwf b. Abī Jamīla al-Aʿrābī al-ʿAbdī al-Baṣrī. Ibn Ḥajar says in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb: “reliable, though accused of Qadarī (free-will) and Shīʿī leanings.” He died in 147 AH at the age of eighty-six, and all six canonical ḥadīth collections include his reports. See Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, 2/89, entry 793 (ʿA).
(5) This refers to Ziyād b. al-Ḥuṣayn b. Qays al-Ḥanẓalī (or al-Riyāḥī) al-Baṣrī, Abū Khuzayma. Ibn Ḥajar notes in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb: “reliable, but sends mursal reports; fourth stratum.” His narrations appear in Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah, and Aḥmad. See Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, 1/267, entry 101.
(6) That is, Ibn ʿAbbās.
(7) MS A reads: wa-iyyākum ("and you [pl.]").
(8) The printed edition adds: yuzād fī ḥamd al-shayʾ ("its praise is further increased").