As for the ḥadīth transmitted by Imām Aḥmad (1): Asbāṭ ibn Muḥammad related to us, al-Aʿmash related from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Saʿd the freedman of Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:
“I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ relate a report—had I heard it only once or twice, up to seven times, it would have sufficed, but in fact I heard it even more often. He said:
‘There was a man called al-Kifl among the Children of Israel who never held back from committing any sin. A woman came to him, and he gave her sixty dīnārs on condition that he sleep with her. When he had taken the place of a husband with his wife, she trembled and burst into tears.
He asked, “What makes you weep? Have I forced you?”
She replied, “No, but this is something I have never done before; only dire need has driven me to it.”
He said, “So you are doing this even though you have never done it before?” He then got up and said, “Go—keep the dīnārs for yourself.”
After that he declared, “By Allah, al-Kifl will never disobey Allah again!” He died that very night, and when morning came these words were found written on his door: ‘Allah has forgiven al-Kifl.’”’ (2)
Al-Tirmidhī (3) likewise recorded it through al-Aʿmash, graded it ḥasan, and noted that some narrators halt it at Ibn ʿUmar. It is, therefore, a very unusual report, and its chain requires scrutiny. Concerning this Saʿd, Abū Ḥātim said, “I know him only through this single ḥadīth,” whereas Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy; no one narrated from him except ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī. Allah knows best.
[If the report is authentic, the person mentioned is not Dhul-Kifl. The wording of the ḥadīth is simply “al-Kifl,” without any further attribution, so he is someone other than the figure named in the Qur’an. Allah knows best.] (4)
Chapter: Nations That Were Destroyed En Masse
This occurred before the Torah was revealed, as indicated by His statement, “We certainly gave Moses the Book after We had destroyed the earlier generations” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:43). Ibn Jarīr (5), Ibn Abī Ḥātim (6), and al-Bazzār (7) transmitted—through ʿAwf al-Aʿrābī, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khuḍrī—who said: “Never did Allah destroy a people with a punishment from the sky or from…"