928 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Of all lawful things, none is more detested by Allah than divorce.” This was narrated by Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah, and al-Ḥākim graded it authentic, whereas Abū Ḥātim judged it to be mursal (disconnected).⦗1⦘
Hadith grading:
The correct ruling is that the report is mursal.
Abū Dāwūd, Ibn Mājah, and al-Ḥākim transmit it with the chain: Muḥammad b. Khālid → Maʿrif b. Wāṣil → Muḥārib b. Dithār → Ibn ʿUmar → the Prophet ﷺ.
Al-Bayhaqī (7/322) records it through Abū Dāwūd’s route, and Ibn ʿAdī (6/461) likewise cites this isnād. Al-Ḥākim declared it ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.
Al-Mināwī took issue with al-Suyūṭī for labeling the ḥadīth sound in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, remarking, “That is incorrect.”
Al-Albānī writes: “In sum, four trustworthy narrators relate this report from Maʿrif b. Wāṣil:
- Muḥammad b. Khālid al-Wahbī
- Aḥmad b. Yūnus
- Wakīʿ b. al-Jarāḥ
- Yaḥyā b. Bukayr
—and they disagreed over it. No competent ḥadīth scholar would doubt that the version transmitted by these men is stronger, for they are more numerous, possess firmer retention, and all of them are authorities whom the two Shaykhs relied upon in their Ṣaḥīḥs; accordingly, preference is duly given…"