Its exact wording is: “Take your pre-dawn meal toward the end of the night,” and he used to call it “the blessed breakfast.” The Shaykh remarks: “It has a supporting chain through the ḥadith of al-ʿIrbāḍ as related by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Khuzaymah ⦗1938⦘, and Ibn Ḥibbān ⦗882⦘. I once deemed its isnād sound in al-Mishkāt, but I have since realized that this was an error, for it contains an unknown narrator, as I clarified in my notes on Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah. Still, this portion of the report is authentic when all of its routes are combined.”
The Shaykh ﵀ then added in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah: “The chain is weak—al-Ḥārith is an unidentified narrator—but the wording about the ‘breakfast’ is sound, for it has corroboration from the ḥadith of al-ʿIrbāḍ and others, as I explained in al-Ḍaʿīfah 1961.” See al-Ṣaḥīḥah ⦗2983⦘, which reads, “Come to the blessed breakfast,” meaning the pre-dawn meal; and consult the Shaykh’s words in Hidāyat al-Ruwāh ⦗1938⦘ where he concludes, “The ḥadith is unquestionably authentic.”
(27) “Whoever says: ‘O Allah, I call You to witness, and I call Your angels, the bearers of Your Throne, and everyone in the heavens and on earth to witness that You are Allah—there is no god but You, You are One without partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad is Your servant and Messenger’—whoever says it once, Allah frees one-third of him from the Fire; whoever says it twice, Allah frees two-thirds of him from the Fire; and whoever says it three times, Allah frees him completely from the Fire.” al-Ṣaḥīḥah – 267.
The Shaykh ﵀ said: Al-Ḥākim recorded it through Ḥumayd b. Mihrān → ʿAṭāʾ → Abū Hurayrah ⦗Allah be pleased with him⦘, who related that Salmān al-Fārisī said the Messenger of Allah ﷺ uttered these words. Al-Ḥākim ruled the isnād sound and al-Dhahabī concurred, and their grading is correct. A corroborating report exists from Anas with a morning-and-evening restriction, but its chain is weak, as I clarified in al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 1041.
The Shaykh ﵀ later added an “Addendum” ⦗1/537⦘: “I noticed something important that requires clarification. Al-Ḥākim transmits this ḥadith from his teacher Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb: ‘Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Ḥajarī told us → Zayd b. al-Ḥabbāb → Ḥumayd b. Mihrān …’ Al-Ṭabarānī, however, reports it from his teacher al-Sājī: ‘Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Ṣūfī → Zayd b. al-Ḥabbāb → Ḥumayd, the freedman of Ibn ʿAlqamah al-Makkī → ʿAṭāʾ …’ Thus the two isnāds differ on two points: first, the nisbah of Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā; second, the name of Zayd’s shaykh—al-Ḥākim calls him Ḥumayd b. Mihrān, whereas al-Ṭabarānī calls him Ḥumayd, the Makkī freedman of Ibn ʿAlqamah. If the latter is correct, the chain is weak, for he is unknown according to al-Taqrīb and no one besides Zayd narrates from him. The ḥadith should therefore be transferred to the other collection under the number cited above unless further support is found, which we have not discovered so far.”
(28) “Has any one of you fed a needy person today?” Abū Bakr ⦗Allah be pleased with him⦘ replied, “I entered the mosque and saw a beggar asking; I found a piece of bread in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s hand, took it from him, and gave it to the beggar.” al-Thamar al-Mustaṭāb, p. 826.
The Shaykh ﵀ comments: The report was recorded by Abū Dāwūd—with the extra wording belonging to him—and by al-Ḥākim, through the chain: Mubārak b. Faḍālah → Thābit al-Bunānī → ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Laylā → ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr, marfūʿ. After tracing its routes he says: “In short, the main reliance in this matter is the ḥadith of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Bakr ⦗Allah be pleased with him⦘, which proves the permissibility of asking and giving charity inside the mosque; Abū Dāwūd entitled a chapter to that effect: ‘Begging in Mosques.’”
Yet the Shaykh places the narration in al-Ḍaʿīfah no. 1458 and declares it munkar. It appears in Abū Dāwūd, al-Ḥākim, and—via al-Ḥākim—in al-Bayhaqī with the same chain. Al-Ḥākim said, “Sound according to Muslim’s criteria,” and al-Dhahabī agreed! I say: this is one of their oddities, especially from al-Dhahabī, for he himself lists Mubārak b. Faḍālah in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ wa-l-Matrūkīn, noting that Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī declared him weak and that he practiced tadlīs—yet here he transmits with an ʿanʿanah chain, and Mubārak is not even among Muslim’s narrators.
Hence al-Nawawī’s statement in Sharḥ al-Muhadhdhab, “Abū Dāwūd narrated it with a good isnād,” is untenable, despite al-Suyūṭī’s endorsement in al-Ḥāwī li-l-Fatāwā. The weakness of the present wording is further shown by an authentic marfūʿ narration from Abū Hurayrah with a similar meaning but without mentioning that Abū Bakr was in the mosque; Muslim and others recorded it, and it is cited in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 88. In light of this, al-Suyūṭī’s use of the present ḥadith to claim that almsgiving to a beggar inside the mosque is not disliked, and that begging there is not forbidden, cannot be upheld.
(29) Ibn Masʿūd ⦗Allah be pleased with him⦘ entered upon his wife and saw something knotted round her neck. He pulled it off and tore it, saying, “The family of ʿAbd Allāh have become affluent enough to associate with Allah that for which He sent down no sanction!” He added, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Ruqyah, talismans, and tiwala are shirk.’” They asked, “Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, we know ruqyah and talismans—what is tiwala?” He answered, “A charm women make to endear themselves to their husbands.”
The Shaykh ﵀ notes: “Ibn Ḥibbān recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Ḥākim reproduced an abridged version, declaring its isnād authentic.” It appears in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 331 (Ghayat al-Marām, p. 147).