from Ibn ʿAbbas, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “A servant may be on the verge of attaining some worldly want, and Allah, from above the seven heavens (1), remembers him and says, ‘My angels, My servant has set his sight on one of the needs of the world. If I open it for him, I shall be opening for him a gate from the gates of the Fire, so keep it away from him.’ The servant then wakes up biting his fingertips, saying, ‘Who got ahead of me? Who out-maneuvered me?’ Yet it is nothing but a mercy with which Allah treats him.”
This is a gharib (2) hadith transmitted by Shuʿbah (3) from al-Hakam, from Mujahid. Abu Nuʿaym (4) said, “We have not recorded it except through the narration of ʿAli ibn Maʿbad from Salih (5).”
20 – Muhammad (6) informed us; Hamad (7) likewise informed us; Ahmad ibn ʿAbd Allah (8) narrated; Sulayman ibn Ahmad narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Barraʾ narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn Idris ibn Sinan narrated,
(1) In manuscripts H and M it reads “samawatih” (his heavens).
(2) I have inserted the word “gharib” (strange) from al-Hilya.
(3) The original reads “wa” (and); the reading we have adopted is likely the correct one.
(4) The original reads “qala Abu Nu‘aym Nu‘aym” (“Abu Nu‘aym Nu‘aym said”), which is clearly erroneous.
(5) The passage from the opening phrase “hatha hadith gharib” (this is a strange hadith) to its end does not appear in the other manuscripts. It is narrated by Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilya (vol. 3, p. 305; vol. 7, p. 208) and is cited by al-Dhahabi in al-‘Uluww (p. 44), where he remarks: “Saleh is conflicting, and this [narration] cannot be attributed to Shu‘bah.” I note that this Saleh is Ibn Bayyan al-Thaqafi, also called al-Abdi and known as al-Sahli. Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi describes him as weak and reports that he transmitted manakeer (rejected reports) from otherwise reliable narrators (Tarikh Baghdad, 9:310). Al-‘Uqaili states that his narrations are mostly fanciful and that he reports manakeer from those unworthy of it (Al-Du‘afa al-Kabir, 2:200). Al-Daraqutni declares him abandoned, and Ibn ‘Adi attributes false hadiths to him (Al-Mizan, 2:290; see also Al-Kamil fi al-Du‘afa, 4:1384).
(6) He is Ibn ‘Abd al-Baqi, mentioned earlier in the preceding hadith.
(7) In manuscripts R and H it reads “Ahmad,” which is an error as noted above.
(8) The name “Ahmad ibn ‘Abdullah” does not occur in the other manuscripts; he is Abu Nu‘aym al-Hafiz, the author of al-Hilya.