Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī likewise transmitted it (1) from ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, from Shuʿbah, with exactly the same wording (2).

It is authentically reported in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections that among the first three for whom Hell will be ignited is the man who gives in charity merely so that people will say, “He is generous”; his reward will be no more than that statement in this world. The same fate awaits the scholar and the fighter (3).

In another rigorously authentic ḥadīth they asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about ʿAbd Allāh ibn Judʿān ibn ʿAmr ibn Kaʿb ibn Saʿd ibn Taym ibn Murrah, saying, “He used to host guests, set slaves free, and give alms—will any of that benefit him?” He replied:

“He never once said in his lifetime, ‘My Lord, forgive me my sin on the Day of Reckoning.’” (4)

Yet he too was counted among the famed benefactors, those who fed people during years of drought and times of want.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (5) said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-ʿUmānī narrated to us; Abū Saʿīd ʿUbayd ibn Kathīr ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Kūfī narrated to us; Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad (6) narrated to us; ʿĀṣim ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, from Abū Ḥamzah al-Thumālī (7), from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jundab, from Kumayl ibn Ziyād al-Nakhaʿī (8) who said:

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib declared, “Glory be to Allah! How many people show little desire for goodness! I find it astonishing that a man whose Muslim brother comes to him with a need does not deem himself worthy of doing good. Even if he neither hoped for reward nor feared punishment (9), he should still hasten to noble conduct, for such virtues point the way to success.”

A man then rose and said, “May my father and mother be ransomed for you, Commander of the Believers! Did you hear this from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He replied, “Yes—and I heard something better than it: when the captives of the tribe of Ṭayy were brought and a young woman fell….”