762 – Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Prophet ﷺ said to me, ‘Speak the truth even if it is bitter.’” Ibn Ḥibbān declared the report authentic; it comes within a longer narration (1).
— Grading of the ḥadith:
In al-Talkhīṣ it is stated: Aḥmad, al-Ṭabarānī, and Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ all transmit it through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṣāmit, from Abu Dharr, who said: “My close friend ﷺ instructed me to tell the truth even though it be bitter.”
Al-Haythamī comments: The transmitters in al-Ṭabarānī’s chain are those found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from Salām, and he is trustworthy. He also says that one of Aḥmad’s two isnāds is made up of reliable narrators.
The ḥadith has supporting evidence:
• The report of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: “Speak the truth even against yourselves.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ says in al-Talkhīṣ: We have transmitted it in a pamphlet of Abu ʿAlī ibn Shādhān with his chain to ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his face); the chain is weak and broken. The purport of this ḥadith, however, is conveyed by several noble Qur’anic verses.
— Vocabulary:
• “Even if it is bitter” (wa-law kāna murran): the word murran is in the accusative because it is the predicate of the verb kāna, whose subject has been omitted.
• al-murr: with ḍamma on the mīm and a doubled rāʾ; it is the opposite of sweet and refers to what the sense of taste perceives as bitterness. The term has been extended from physical to moral matters.
— Points derived from the ḥadith:
- Al-Munadhirī cites the report in al-Targhīb wa’l-Tarhīb as follows: Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “My intimate friend, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, instructed me to speak the truth even if it is bitter, and not to…"