of the hadith. I did, however, find it in one of the rare sources. Abd Allah ibn Wahb—one of Ahmad’s teachers—said in his al-Jāmi (69): Yazīd ibn Iyād informed us, from Abd al-Rahmān al-Araj, from Abū Hurayra, traced back to the Prophet, with the wording:

“Allah does not love idle talk ... nor do I love men who sample women, or women who sample men.”

I say: This chain of transmission is extremely weak. Regarding Yazīd ibn Iyād, al-Hāfiz said in al-Taqrīb: “Mālik and others accused him of lying.”

After writing the foregoing, I found the hadith in al-Maqāsid al-Hasana (no. 1281). He cited it with the wording found in the book and said when documenting it:

“Al-Tabarānī narrated it from Abū Mūsā, traced back to the Prophet, with this wording. Al-Daylamī narrated it from Abū Hurayra alone with the wording: ‘Marry and do not divorce, for Allah does not love men who sample women or women who sample men.’ It is likewise found in al-Dāraqutnī’s al-Afrād, through Bakr ibn Bakkār, from [Ibn] Abī Arūba, from Qatāda, from Shahr ibn Hawshab, from him.”

I say: This documentation shows us that al-Dāraqutnī did not report it in his Sunan, but rather in al-Afrād, which has not been published, and that its wording is not the wording found in the book, but the wording that follows. It also shows that al-Tabarānī’s wording is the same as that found in the book. It therefore appears that al-Haythamī cited it with wording different from that of al-Tabarānī’s al-Kabīr. Allah knows best.

Shahr is weak, as will be explained.

256 – (He said: “Allah does not love men who sample women or women who sample men.” Al-Tabarānī reported it in al-Kabīr with a fair chain of transmission.) p. 206

Weak. Ibn Abī Shayba reported it in al-Musannaf (7/137–138), from Layth, from Shahr ibn Hawshab, who said: