(53) “Bathḥān is situated upon a canal from the canals of Paradise.” Al-Ṣaḥīḥah no. 769 (Maʿārif ed., pp. 398–399). The Shaykh said: “It is reported by Ibn Ḥayuwiyyah in his collected narrations and by al-Daylamī, through Yaʿqūb ibn Kāṣib who said: al-Mughīrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; al-Juʿayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated from (al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays) from ʿUrwah from ʿĀʾishah, traced back to the Prophet.” I first judged the chain sound (ḥasan)… but I then discovered that the narrator called al-Aḥnaf is not Ibn Qays, as appears in the isnād, but Aḥnaf Āl Abī al-Maʿlā, an unidentified person. Academic honesty therefore required me to move the report to my other collection, al-Ḍaʿīfah, where it now appears in vol. 12, no. 5730. Allah is the granter of success.

(54) Al-Ashʿath ibn Qays (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Of all people, the most grateful to Allah is the one most grateful to other people.” Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb (Maʿārif) no. 570. Aḥmad transmits it through two isnāds: the first contains an unknown narrator; the second is broken. The report does possess a strong corroboration with a different wording, so I cited it together with its corroborant in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb, nos. 971 and 973, in the form: “He does not thank Allah who does not thank people,” as narrated from both al-Ashʿath and Abū Hurayrah. The Shaykh added: I also placed it in al-Ṣaḥīḥah beneath ḥadīth 416 (p. 776) with that same wording, and there I promised to trace the first wording. I have since realised my mistake and transferred it to al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 5339 under the wording, “The most grateful of people to Allah is the one most grateful to the people.” If it is ever found elsewhere as authenticated, that means I have retracted my earlier judgement.

(55) After every obligatory prayer, once he had given the salām, the Prophet ﷺ used to say: “lā ilāha illā Allāh, waḥdahu lā sharīka lahu; lahu l-mulku wa lahu l-ḥamdu, wa huwa ʿalā kulli shayʾin qadīr. Allāhumma lā māniʿa limā aʿṭayta, wa lā muʿṭiya limā manaʿta, wa lā yanfaʿu dhā l-jaddi minka l-jadd.” Al-Ṣaḥīḥah, first edition, p. 196; and al-Ṣaḥīḥah (Maʿārif ed.), p. 196. The Shaykh comments: In earlier printings I had inserted extra phrases—taken from other routes—between brackets; most of those additions first appeared in the initial edition and were reproduced by later photo-offsets. It has now become clear that they are anomalous, so I deleted them and moved them to al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 5598.

(56) “Satan is to man what a wolf is to sheep: he seizes the lone, distant one. So avoid the mountain passes and cling to the congregation, the masses, and the mosque.” Cited in Sharḥ al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, p. 512 (8th ed.), reference no. 792. The Shaykh had earlier said, “Its chain is sound,” but he now states: “Not so; I do not know how this slipped through. The chain is weak, as shown in Takhrīj al-Mishkāt no. 184, al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 3016, and Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ no. 1477.” In al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 3016 he adds: “I later found a flaw that invalidates its soundness, namely a break in the chain. I had overlooked this when annotating Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah and therefore authenticated it there (p. 516). I now retract that ruling, and Allah alone grants success.” See also Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb no. 206 and Hidāyat al-Ruwwāt no. 182.

(57) “Whoever sets out in the path of Allah and then dies or is killed is a martyr; if his horse or camel throws him and kills him, or a venomous creature stings him, or he dies on his bed in whatever manner Allah wills, he is a martyr and Paradise is his.” Aḥkām al-Janāʾiz (Maʿārif), p. 51. The Shaykh said: Abū Dāwūd, al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī relate it from Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī. Al-Ḥākim graded it ṣaḥīḥ, whereas it is merely ḥasan. I later realised that this too was mistaken and that the report is weak; see the full discussion in al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 5360. See further: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ no. 6413; Abū Dāwūd no. 2499; Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb no. 815; and Hidāyat al-Ruwwāt no. 3763.

(58) “On the Day of Resurrection, some Muslims will come with sins as huge as mountains; Allah will forgive them and place them upon the Jews.” Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ no. 8035; Muslim no. 2767. The narration is also listed in al-Ḍaʿīfah nos. 5399 and 1316. The Shaykh writes in al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 1316: “This wording is munkar. It is uniquely reported by Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmārah, who said: ‘Shaddād Abū Ṭalḥah al-Rāsibī narrated to us from Ghailān ibn Jarīr from Abū Burdah from his father—meaning Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—who related it from the Prophet ﷺ,’ adding at the end, ‘as far as I recall.’ Abū Rūḥ remarked, ‘I do not know whose doubt this is.’ Muslim transmits the report through this route and also through Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā, ʿAwn ibn ʿUtbah, and Saʿīd ibn Abī Burdah in similar form but without the phrase ‘and He will place them [upon the Jews].’ Aḥmad likewise narrates it … again through Ṭalḥah ibn Yaḥyā, and all of them cite Abū Burdah with wording that omits that addition. One of Muslim’s versions states: ‘When the Day of Resurrection comes, Allah will assign to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian and will say, “This is your ransom from the Fire.”’ Hence the entire group relate it without the extra clause, which I therefore deem anomalous—indeed munkar—for several reasons….