al-Muhallā (9/64): “It is not authentic, because Asbagh ibn Zayd and Kathīr ibn Murra are unknown.”

That is what he said! Al-Mundhirī stated in al-Targhīb (3/26): “It was narrated by Ahmad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Hākim. This text contains an element of singularity, though some of its chains of transmission are good.” That is what he said! Al-ʿAsqalānī stated in al-Talkhīs (3/13): “Its chain contains Asbagh ibn Zayd, regarding whom there is disagreement. Ibn Hazm regarded Kathīr ibn Murra as unknown, though others knew him. Ibn Saʿd declared him trustworthy, a number of narrators reported from him, and al-Nasāʾī accepted his reports as proof.” Al-Haythamī stated (4/100): “It was narrated by Ahmad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Tabarānī in al-Awsat. Its chain contains Abū Bishr al-Amlūkī, whom Ibn Maʿīn declared weak.”

I say: He, then, is the flaw in the hadith. Everyone who faulted the hadith on some other ground, as you have seen, or sought to answer such criticism went far afield, failing to notice its true flaw. Ibn al-Jawzī included it in al-Mawduʿāt and said: “It is not authentic. Asbagh’s hadiths are not reliably preserved, and he cannot be cited as proof when he narrates alone.” Al-Suyūtī took issue with him in al-Laʾāliʾ al-Masnūʿa (2/147), and Ibn ʿIrāq followed him in Tanzīh al-Sharīʿa (2/193). They quoted from al-ʿIrāqī and al-ʿAsqalānī the arguments with which the two defended Asbagh, including that the majority regarded him as trustworthy. We have already cited the latter’s words above. Yet neither of them noticed the flaw identified by Ibn Abī Hātim and later by al-Haythamī—may Allah reward them both with good. Further still from all of this was al-ʿIrāqī’s statement in Takhrīj al-Ihyāʾ (4/189): “Ahmad and al-Hākim narrated it with a good chain”! Similar is the statement cited above from al-Mundhirī. Al-ʿIrāqī then quoted Ibn ʿAdī as saying: “It is not reliably preserved as a hadith of Ibn Umar.”

This is the correct conclusion: the hadith is weak, rejected, and not reliably preserved. It is neither good nor fabricated. All praise is due to Allah for granting success.

325 — (And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “No one hoards except a sinner.” Muslim.)

p. 247

Authentic. It was narrated by Muslim (5/56), as well as Abū Dāwūd (3447), al-Tirmidhī (1/239), al-Dārimī (2/248–249), Ibn Mājah (2154), and Ahmad (3/453, 454; 6/400), from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Maʿmar ibn ʿAbd Allah, from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), with this wording. In another version narrated by Muslim and others, it reads: “Whoever hoards is a sinner.”