‘I love you for Allah’s sake.’ Ibn ʿUmar replied, ‘I detest you for Allah’s sake.’ The man exclaimed, ‘Glory be to Allah! I love you for Allah’s sake and you detest me for Allah’s sake?’ Ibn ʿUmar said, ‘Yes, because you take payment for your adhān.’
I say: al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrated a similar report through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Yaḥyā al-Bakkāʾ.
Ibn Ḥazm then stated, “No Companion is known to have disagreed with Ibn ʿUmar on this point.”
I respond: The authenticity of this report from Ibn ʿUmar is questionable, for it rests solely on Yaḥyā al-Bakkāʾ, who is weak, as noted in al-Taqrīb. More than one authority, including al-Nasāʾī and al-Dāraquṭnī, declared him weak. Ibn Ḥibbān said, “He relates problematic reports from reliable narrators; it is impermissible to rely on him.” Al-Dhahabī mentioned him in al-Mīzān, quoted Ibn Ḥibbān’s verdict, and then cited this very narration from Ibn ʿUmar.
Moreover, it appears that Ibn Ḥibbān recorded this narration only in his book al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, not in his Ṣaḥīḥ, contrary to what al-Shawkānī’s wording may suggest. Allah knows best.
- If something reaches a person without his asking for it or longing for it, he should accept it and not reject it, for it is provision that Allah has brought to him.
There are several hadiths on this theme. The first is from Khālid ibn ʿAdiyy al-Juhanī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “Whoever receives a favor from his brother without asking for it and without coveting it, let him accept it and not…”