1363 – On the authority of Buraidah (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) heard a man saying, ‘O Allah, I ask You because I testify that You are Allah—there is no deity but You—the One, the Ever-Besought, who neither begets nor is begotten, and to whom none is comparable.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘He has certainly asked Allah by His Name which, when He is asked by it, He gives, and when He is supplicated by it, He answers.’ ” Reported by the Four Sunan compilers and declared authentic by Ibn Ḥibbān. (1)

Degree of authenticity:
The hadith is sound (ḥasan).
• Al-Shawkānī said in Tuhfat al-Dhākirīn: it was recorded by the four Sunan compilers and by Ibn Ḥibbān; al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it ṣaḥīḥ. It was also transmitted from Buraidah by al-Ḥākim, who said, “Sound according to their two conditions.”
• Al-Mundhirī quoted our teacher Abū al-Ḥasan al-Maqdisī as saying: “Its chain is beyond reproach.”
• Ibn Ḥajar stated: “This is the strongest narration concerning the Supreme Name in terms of its chain.”
• Al-Sakhāwī likewise graded it ḥasan in al-Fatūḥāt al-Rabbāniyyah.

Vocabulary of the hadith:
– al-Aḥad: the One who has no partner in His divinity, lordship, names, or attributes; His essence and attributes are utterly transcendent, exalted be He.
– al-Ṣamad: the Master to whom all creatures turn in their needs and whom they seek in