Awsat ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bajalī related: Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) addressed us and said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood in this very place of mine the preceding year.” Abū Bakr then wept and continued: “Ask Allah for preservation from affliction—or, he said, for well-being—for no one has ever been granted anything better, after certainty, than well-being—or preservation from affliction. Adhere to truthfulness, for it accompanies righteousness, and both are in Paradise. Beware of lying, for it accompanies wickedness, and both are in the Fire. Do not envy one another, do not hate one another, do not sever relations with one another, and do not turn your backs on one another. Be brothers, as Allah Most High has commanded you.” (1)
Al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwām (may Allah be pleased with him) related that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “The malady of the nations before you has crept into your midst: envy and hatred. Hatred is the shaver. I do not say that it shaves hair; rather, it shaves away religion. By Him in whose hand is my soul—or, by Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul—you will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Shall I not tell you what will firmly establish that among you? Spread the greeting of peace among yourselves.” (2)
Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The roots of all sins are three:
(1) Hasan (sound): Recorded by Ahmad (5, 18, 35) and Ibn Mājah (3849), through Shuʿba, from Yazīd ibn Khumayr, from Sulaym ibn ʿĀmir, from Awsat. Its narrators are trustworthy.
(2) Hasan li-ghayrihi (sound due to corroborating evidence): Recorded by Ahmad in al-Musnad (1415), through Hishām ibn Hassān and Abū Muʿāwiya Shaybān, both from Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Yaʿīsh ibn al-Walīd ibn Hishām, from al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwām. Its chain is disconnected between Yaʿīsh and al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him), since Yaʿīsh did not hear from him. Al-Tirmidhī (2510) and Ahmad (1433) recorded it with a connected chain through Harb ibn Shaddād, from Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, who reported that Yaʿīsh ibn al-Walīd told him that a client of al-Zubayr’s family had related it to him from al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwām. This chain is also weak, because the client of al-Zubayr’s family is an unknown narrator.
It has another defect noted by al-Tirmidhī (may Allah have mercy on him), who said: “The transmitters differed in their narration of this hadith from Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr. Some narrated it from Yahyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Yaʿīsh ibn al-Walīd, from a client of al-Zubayr, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), without mentioning al-Zubayr in the chain.”
It also has a corroborating report in al-Tirmidhī (2508), transmitted through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Makhramī—a descendant of al-Miswar ibn Makhrama—from ʿUthmān ibn Muhammad al-Akhnasī, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayra, as a marfūʿ report attributed to the Prophet. ʿUthmān was truthful but prone to error. Ibn Hibbān said: “His reports are suitable for consideration except when al-Makhramī narrates from him.” I say: Al-Tirmidhī also hinted at a weakness here, saying: “This is a sahīh gharīb hadith through this route.”
These three chains should, Allah willing, strengthen one another, since none contains a narrator accused of lying. In al-Targhīb, al-Mundhirī attributed it to al-Bazzār with a good chain of transmission, as well as to al-Bayhaqī and others. Al-Albānī graded it hasan in Sahīh Sunan al-Tirmidhī (2038). Some of the shaykh’s detractors claimed that he contradicted himself by grading it weak in Daʿīf al-Jāmiʿ wa-Ziyādatuhu (2957). I therefore consulted al-Jāmiʿ al-Saghīr, only to find that the shaykh had graded it hasan and referred the reader to Sahīh al-Sunan!