‘O Abū ʿAlī, what is meant by “the purest and the most correct”?’
He replied, ‘If a deed is performed with sincerity but is not correct [it is not accepted; and if] (1) it is correct yet lacks sincerity, it is not accepted, until it is both sincere and correct.’ (2)
‘Pure’ means that it is done for Allah alone, and ‘correct’ (3) means that it accords with the sunnah.
As for al-Shāfiʿī—may Allah be pleased with him—he related the hadiths that serve the purpose of his book (4), such as the hadith of the Divine Descent and the report of Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥakam al-Sulamī, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to the slave-girl, ‘Where is Allah?’ She answered, ‘In heaven.’ He asked, ‘And who am I?’ She replied, ‘You are Muḥammad, the Messenger of Allah.’ He then said, ‘Set her free, for she is a believer.’ (5) Muslim recorded this narration in his Ṣaḥīḥ.
= And see what Ibn Kathir says in his Tafsir (vol. 2, p. 438): that an action cannot be good until it is purely for Allah (the Mighty and Exalted) and in accordance with the shariah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). Whenever a deed lacks either of these two conditions, it is nullified and invalid.
(1) In the Ṭ edition the text reads “wa-idhā” (“and when”).
(2) The portion between the parentheses is omitted in S.
(3) In S the phrase “an yakūna lillāh” (“to be for Allah”) is repeated; this is a copyist’s slip.
(4) The original reads “yata‘allaq gharḍ ʿarḍ kitābihi” (“it pertains to the objective of presenting his book”). In S it reads “yata‘allaq gharḍ kitābihi” (“it pertains to the objective of his book”). The reading in Ṭ is confirmed and seems more appropriate.
(5) It is reported by Muslim, Abu Dawood, Ahmad and others from Mu‘awiyah in a long hadith in which Mu‘awiyah said:
“I once had a slave-girl who grazed my sheep before the battles of Uhud and al-Jawāniyah. One day I went out and found that a wolf had taken one of her sheep. I, being a man of flesh and blood, felt anger—like any other person—but I struck her with an open palm. Then I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in deep remorse. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, shall I free her?’ He said, ‘Bring her to me.’ So I brought her, and he asked her, ‘Where is Allah?’ …”
References: Sahih Muslim 1:382 (The Book of Mosques, Chapter on the Prohibition of Speaking in Prayer, Hadith 33); Sunan Abu Dawood 1:572–573 (The Book of Prayer, Chapter on Blessing the Sneezer in Prayer, Hadith 930); Musnad Ahmad 5:448. See also its abridged version in al-Sunan al-Maʾthūrah of Imam al-Shāfiʿī (may Allah have mercy on him), in the narration of Abū ….