ʿAbd Allāh—through Ṭāriq ibn Shihāb—from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Whoever deceives the Arabs will have no share in my intercession, nor will he obtain my affection.”
Al-Tirmidhī remarked: “This ḥadīth is gharīb; we know it only through the narration of Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿUmar al-Aḥmasī from Mukhāriq, and Ḥuṣayn, in the view of the ḥadīth scholars, is not particularly reliable.”
I say: The purport of this report is close to that of Salmān’s ḥadīth, for one who deceives a people is surely not acting out of love for them; such conduct can arise only from disdain or hatred. Its meaning, therefore, is not remote, yet this very Ḥuṣayn who transmitted it has had most of the leading ḥadīth masters reject his narrations.
(1) Mukhariq ibn ʿAbd Allah—some say ibn Khalifa—al-Ahmasi al-Kufi, Abu Saʿid, is deemed reliable. Al-Bukhari narrates from him in his Sahih, as do al-Nasaʾi, al-Tirmidhi, and others. He belongs to the third generation of transmitters. See: Khalasat al-tadhhib, p. 371; Taqrib al-tahdhib 2:433, no. 965.
(2) Tariq ibn Shihab ibn ʿAbd Shams ibn Hilal, al-Bajali al-Ahmasi, Abu ʿAbd Allah of Kufa, saw the Prophet—peace be upon him—but reports from him only in mursal form; some scholars deny he was a Companion. Ibn Maʿin, al-ʿAjli, and others declared him trustworthy. He died in 82 AH. See: Taqrib al-tahdhib 5:3–4, no. 5; Ibn Saʿd, al-Tabaqat al-kubra 6:66. In MS B the name appears as “ibn Shahan,” but the correct reading is with the letter bāʾ.
(3) The words “ibn ʿAffan” are omitted in MSS B, C, and D.
(4) See Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Book of Merits, chapter “The Merits of the Arabs,” hadith no. 3928 (5:724); it is also cited by ʿAbd Allah the son of Imam Ahmad in the Musnad (1:72), where he says, “I found this in my father’s notebook…,” and by al-Suyuti in al-Jamiʿ al-saghir, who classifies it as weak (2:626, no. 8880).
(5) Same source as the previous note.
(6) MS D reads istihqaf, a scribal error.
(7) The printed edition reads: istikhfaf bihim wa bughd lahum (“to disdain them and to hate them”).