(33) Ibn Umm Maktūm, the blind Companion—for whose sake the verse was revealed, “He frowned and turned away, because the blind man came to him” (Q 80:1-2)—came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, “Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be your ransom! As you see, my years have advanced, my bones have become fragile, my sight has gone, and the guide who leads me does not always accommodate me. Do you find a dispensation that would allow me to perform the prayers in my house?” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Do you hear the muʾadhdhin where you are?” He replied, “Yes, Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ said, “I find no concession for you. By the One in whose hand is my soul, if the man who stays away from the congregational prayer knew the reward awaiting the one who walks to it, he would come even if he had to crawl on his hands and knees.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb (2nd ed.) no. 430; also in Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb (Maʿārif) no. 234.

(34) “Whoever performs ablution, then comes to the mosque and prays two rakʿahs before dawn, after which he remains seated until he prays the dawn prayer, his prayer that day will be recorded among the prayers of the righteous and he will be written among the delegation of the All-Merciful.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb (2nd ed.) no. 416; also in Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb (Maʿārif) no. 228.

(35) “O Allah, for Your sake I have fasted and with Your provision I break my fast.” Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah; also in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl no. 919 (4/39). The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said: “Because the two preceding chains are extremely weak and cannot be used for corroboration, the ḥadith remains weak and fragile. Nevertheless, a group declared it sound, and I do not know how I was influenced by them in my notes to Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah.” See also Mishkāt 1994; al-Kalīm al-Ṭayyib (Maʿārif) 165 p. 140; Abū Dāwūd 2358; and Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ 631.

(36) “The Prophet ﷺ used to wear his ring on his right hand.” Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl 3/301-302. The Shaykh remarked: “Al-Nasaʾī and al-Tirmidhī recorded it in al-Shamāʾil with a chain authentic by Muslim’s criteria. Yet Shuʿbah also narrated from Qatādah with the wording, ‘It is as though I can still see the whiteness of the Prophet’s ring on the little finger of his left hand,’ transmitted by al-Nasaʾī with a sound chain. Thus Shuʿbah and Ibn Abī ʿArūbah differ in their reports from Qatādah, and both are reliable, each narration having supporting evidence. Preference between them is therefore impossible; one must reconcile the two, perhaps by assigning each wording to a different occasion. Otherwise, the report appears internally inconsistent.” The ḥadith is also in Mukhtaṣar al-Shamāʾil (Maʿārif) p. 62, where the Shaykh added: “I had deemed its chain sound, but the compiler declared the text inconsistent; that was the position I adopted in Irwāʾ. I have now retracted that and give precedence to the left-hand narration, because Thābit corroborates Qatādah on it, as mentioned above. For this reason al-Dāraqutnī stated that it is the preserved version—something I had not grasped in Irwāʾ. Let this correction be transferred there.”

(37) “Whoever safeguards them will have light, evidence and deliverance on the Day of Resurrection; whoever fails to safeguard them will have no light, no evidence and no deliverance, and on the Day of Resurrection he will be with Qārūn, Pharaoh, Hāmān and Ubayy ibn Khalaf.” Al-Thamar al-Mustaṭāb pp. 52-53, where the Shaykh said: “Its chain is ḥasan.” The report also appears in Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ no. 2851; Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb (Maʿārif) no. 312; see also Mishkāt 578, al-Hidāyah 550, and Ḍaʿīf Mawārid al-Ẓamʾān 20/254.

(38) ʿUmar passed by Ḥassān while he was reciting poetry in the mosque. (ʿUmar looked at him and said, “Stop!”) Ḥassān replied—(in a circle that included Abū Hurayrah)—“I used to recite in the presence of one better than you.” (He then turned to Abū Hurayrah and asked, “Did you hear the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Respond on my behalf; O Allah, support him with the Holy Spirit’?” Abū Hurayrah said, “Yes.”) (ʿUmar then left, realizing that Ḥassān was referring to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.) The ḥadith is related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasaʾī and Aḥmad; the wording is Aḥmad’s. The first additional phrase is in Muslim, the second in all except al-Bukhārī, the sixth in all except Abū Dāwūd… The third and last additions were also reported by Aḥmad through another chain containing the fourth addition. The Shaykh later discovered that this chain is disconnected, so that addition must be struck out—and that is what we have done. Al-Thamar al-Mustaṭāb pp. 795-796.

(39) “The rewards of my community were displayed before me—even the mote of dust a man removes from the mosque—and the sins of my community were displayed before me, and I saw no sin greater than a surah or a verse of the Quran that a man was given, then forgot.” Al-Thamar al-Mustaṭāb p. 587. The Shaykh said: “The report has a mursal corroboration with a similar wording, transmitted by Ibn Abī Dāwūd as cited in Fatḥ al-Bārī, and with it the narration is ḥasan, Allah willing; Ibn Khuzaymah also authenticated it.” He later added (p. 589): “I have since retracted that and now regard the ḥadith as weak.” See Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd 88; Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb (Maʿārif) nos. 184 and 872; Mishkāt 720; and Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ 3700.

(40) “Do not slaughter except a musinnah (a fully-grown animal), but if that is difficult for you, then sacrifice a jadhaʿah (a young sheep).” Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl 4/359. The Shaykh wrote: “For a time I was misled by this ḥadith, thinking it authentic because Muslim included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ. I later noticed its hidden flaw and pointed it out in al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 65, pp. 160–161 and 163 (Maʿārif edition).” See Mishkāt 1455 and al-Hidāyah 1400.