his neck. He said, “Will you let me ransom myself from you?” and proceeded to ransom himself from them with whatever he could—small or great—until he set himself free.

I also command you to remember Allah often. The likeness of this is a man pursued swiftly by an enemy; he reaches a well-fortified citadel and takes refuge in it. The servant is never more securely defended against Satan than when he is engaged in the remembrance of Allah.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then added:
“Moreover, I command you with five matters that Allah has enjoined upon me: to keep to the community, to listen, to obey, to emigrate, and to strive in the path of Allah. Whoever parts from the community by so much as a handspan has cast off the bond of Islam from his neck—unless he returns. And whoever calls with the rallying-cry of the Age of Ignorance is among the denizens of Hell.”

They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, even if he fasts and prays?”
He replied, “Even if he fasts, prays, and claims to be a Muslim. Call the believers by the names Allah has given them: Muslims, believers, servants of Allah.”

Abū Yaʿlā likewise transmitted this ḥadīth from Hudbah ibn Khālid, from Abān ibn Yazīd, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, with the same wording. Al-Tirmidhī also narrated it—through Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī and Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl, both from Abān ibn Yazīd al-ʿAṭṭār—with the same content. Al-Nasāʾī reported it from Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, from Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb ibn Ṣābūr, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Sallām, from his brother Zayd ibn Sallām, from Abū Sallām, from al-Ḥārith al-Ashʿarī, and al-Ḥākim transmitted it through Marwān ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭāṭarī, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Sallām, from his brother, with the same report. Al-Ḥākim then remarked, “This chain is unique to Marwān al-Ṭāṭarī from Muʿāwiyah ibn Sallām.” I say: It is not as he claimed, for al-Ṭabarānī also narrated it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdah, from Abū Tawbah al-Rabīʿ ibn Nāfiʿ—