Fifteenth: The bow has a distinctive quality (1): it repels poverty from its owner. A report to that effect—whose chain of transmission is open to scrutiny—was cited (2) by Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī in his book “The Virtue of Archery” (3), narrated by al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ from al-Ḥasan, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever acquires an Arabian bow, Allah will keep poverty away from him.”
Sixteenth: It was by means of bows that Allah enabled the Companions to gain a foothold in distant lands and granted them victory over their enemies. Al-Ṭabarānī likewise narrated, through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUwaym ibn Sāʿida from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pointed to the Arabian bow and said, “With this, and with the lances of al-qanā, Allah will establish you in the land and give you triumph over your foe.” (4)
(1) MSS Ḥ and Maṭ insert the word khassatan (exclusively).
(2) In MS Maṭ the marginal note reads: “Its isnad is questionable; it was transmitted by Abū al-Qāsim.” In MS Ḥ the wording is simply: “Its isnad: Abū al-Qāsim.” The copyist has further added in the margin after the word isnad: “Perhaps: weak; he transmitted it.”
(3) Listed as no. 26 through the route of Ibrāhīm b. Mardawayh—“my father narrated to us from al-Rabīʿ b. Ṣabīḥ ….” The report is unique to al-Rabīʿ b. Ṣabīḥ, whose memory is unreliable; his solitary narrations cannot be adduced as evidence. As for those who transmit from him, one must examine who they are; see Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 9: 89-94. Al-Khaṭīb also related it in Tārīkh Baghdād 1: 383–84 through another chain from Anas with the wording: “Whoever keeps a bow in his house, Allah will keep poverty away from him for forty years.” This ḥadīth is fabricated, for it contains Muḥammad b. Sinān, a known liar; see al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl 7: 279.
(4) Cited in Fī Faḍl al-Ramy, no. 28, in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr 17/no. 351, and by al-Bayhaqī in —