their reliability, it is now fitting that we cite an account which advocates of this innovated form of tawassul often invoke, so that we may determine whether it is sound or weak and whether it is even relevant to our discussion. I therefore say:

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar writes in Fatḥ al-Bārī, 2/397:

“Ibn Abī Shaybah transmitted with a sound chain from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān, from Mālik al-Dār—who was the treasurer of ʿUmar—that he said: ‘The people suffered a drought in the time of ʿUmar. A man came to the grave of the Prophet ﷺ and said, “Messenger of Allah, ask Allah to give rain to your community, for they are perishing.” The man was then addressed in a dream: “Go to ʿUmar …”’—and so on. Sayf relates in al-Futūḥ that the person who saw this dream was Bilāl ibn al-Ḥārith al-Muzanī, one of the Companions.”

I reply, and the response has several facets:

First: we do not concede the authenticity of this story, because Mālik al-Dār is not known for uprightness and precision—two indispensable conditions for any sound chain, as established in the science of hadith. Ibn Abī Ḥātim lists him in al-Jarḥ wa’l-Taʿdīl, 4/1, p. 213, and mentions no narrator from him other than this Abū Ṣāliḥ, which suggests that he is unknown. This is further supported by the fact that Ibn Abī Ḥātim himself—with his vast memory and wide reading—records no statement accrediting him, so he remains an unknown narrator.

Nor does this contradict Ibn Ḥajar’s wording, “with a sound chain from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān …,” for we maintain that he is authenticating only as far as Abū Ṣāliḥ, not the entire chain. Had he intended otherwise, he would have begun the chain with “from Mālik al-Dār … with a sound chain.” Instead, he deliberately started from Abū Ṣāliḥ to draw attention to the fact that something here requires scrutiny. Scholars adopt this manner of phrasing for a variety of reasons, among them: