It was also related by Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī and al-Bayhaqī (1) through the chain of Rabīʿah ibn Sīf ibn Mātiʿ al-Maʿāfirī al-Ṣanami al-Iskandarī. Al-Bukhārī (2) said of him, “He has objectionable narrations.” Al-Nasāʾī (3) said, “There is nothing wrong with him,” and on another occasion (4) declared him “truthful,” while one manuscript (5) reads “weak.” Ibn Ḥibbān included him in “The Trustworthy” and remarked (6), “He made many mistakes.” Al-Dāraquṭnī (7) judged him “acceptable,” and Ibn Yūnus, in his History of Egypt (8), commented, “His ḥadīths contain irregularities; he died shortly after the year 120 AH.”

What is meant by al-Kudā is the graves; some have said it refers to lamentation (9).

The point is that ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib died upon the religion of the pre-Islamic period, contrary to what a faction of the Shiʿah claims about him and about his son Abū Ṭālib—as will be discussed under the account of Abū Ṭālib’s death. Al-Bayhaqī, after citing these reports in his book Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (10), said:

“How could his parents and his grandfather ﷺ be otherwise in the Hereafter when they worshipped idols and died without following the religion of Jesus son of Mary ﷺ? Their disbelief (11) in no way impugns his noble lineage ﷺ, for the marriages of unbelievers are valid. Do you not see that when a husband and his wife embrace Islam together they are not required either to renew the contract or to separate, since such a union is permissible in Islam? Allah grants success.” End of his words.

I say: His statement ﷺ that his parents and his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib are among the people of the Fire does not contradict the ḥadīth—transmitted through multiple chains—that the people of the interval between messengers (ahl al-fatrah), children, the insane, and the deaf will be tested on the plains of the Day of Resurrection, as we have detailed in both chain and wording when discussing His saying: “And We never punish until We send a messenger” (12) [al-Isrāʾ 17:15]; some of them will respond