What still remains is to demonstrate the anomaly in Ibn Isḥāq’s rendition of the report. In my estimation, any attentive reader of the previous discussion will already have sensed this from the authentic narrations and the others, for none of them contains Ibn Isḥāq’s wording about long, copious supplication, or about the people turning with him. Nor does that wording appear in any of the aḥādīth on the rain-prayer that I have examined. An anomaly—or rather an outright objectionable peculiarity—can be established on far less evidence than this. Allah is the One who grants success.
I had once graded this ḥadīth ḥasan in al-Irwāʾ (676), judging only by the outward form of the isnād and oblivious to its defect. All praise is due to Allah who has guided us to this; we would never have been guided had He not guided us.
Here is a ḥadīth that the Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—first declared ḥasan and later ruled weak. Its wording is:
46- “I am at war with those who fight you, and at peace with those who make peace with you.” He said this concerning ʿAlī, Fāṭimah, al-Ḥasan, and al-Ḥusayn.
It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (3870), Ibn Mājah (145), Ibn Ḥibbān (2244), and others.
The Shaykh said:
“Our brother Ḥamdī al-Salafī also graded the ḥadīth ḥasan because of its various routes, and I myself once did so in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (1462), relying on my earlier documentation of it in al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr, having been taken in by Ibn Ḥibbān’s authentication of the first route. I have now retracted that verdict and have written in my own copy of the Ṣaḥīḥ to move it to Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ. Allah alone gives success, and I ask Him to guide me to the most upright path.” (al-Silsilah al-Ḍaʿīfah, 6028)
I—Muḥammad—add: see also Ḍaʿīf al-Mawārid, no. 277; Mishkāt, 6145; al-Hidāyah, 6102.
The Shaykh likewise withdrew his earlier authentication of the following ḥadīth and judged it weak. Its wording is:
47- “The Prophet ﷺ applied kohl while he was fasting.”
The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said:
“It is weak. It was reported by Ibn Mājah (1678) and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Ṣaghīr … The narrators in the chain are trustworthy—provided that the man called al-Zubaydī here is Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd, as al-Ṭabarānī explicitly states. I adopted that view in my note to al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr (759) because al-Ṭabarānī names him and because the unqualified nisbah ‘al-Zubaydī’ ordinarily refers to him. Some years ago, however, it became clear to me that I had been mistaken. Accordingly, in al-Silsilah al-Ḍaʿīfah (3/76) I cited the report from Anas that he used to apply kohl while fasting and remarked: ‘There are marfūʿ narrations conveying that meaning, but none of them is authentic, as stated by al-Tirmidhī and others.’
One of the Algerian students—rightly so—was perplexed when he found this general verdict of weakness contradicting my earlier authentication of the report in Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah (1360), where it is linked to al-Rawḍ. I therefore felt obliged to re-examine the ḥadīth in light of the new information and the recently printed ḥadīth sources.” (al-Silsilah al-Ḍaʿīfah, under ḥadīth no. 6108)
Shaykh al-Albānī—may Allah have mercy on him—declared the next ḥadīth weak in Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb, 1728. I came across it in a post in the ḥadīth section entitled “A Famous Story That Is Not Authentic.” Its wording is:
48- From Anas ibn Mālik—may Allah be pleased with him—who said: “We were once sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he said, ‘A man from the people of Paradise is about to appear before you from that pass.’ A man of the Anṣār appeared, his beard dripping with water from ablution, holding his sandals in his left hand. He greeted us with salām. The next day the Prophet ﷺ repeated the same statement, and that same man appeared in the same manner. On the third day the Prophet ﷺ again said the same words, and once more the same man came just as before. When the Prophet ﷺ rose to leave, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ followed him and said, ‘I had a disagreement with my father and swore not to enter his house for three nights. If you will allow me to stay with you until the three nights pass, please do so.’ He replied, ‘Yes.’
“Anas said: ʿAbd Allāh related that he stayed with the man for three nights, and never saw him rise at night for prayer. Whenever he turned over in bed he would remember Allah and extol Him until he rose for the dawn prayer. ʿAbd Allāh said, ‘I never heard him speak anything but good.’ When the three nights were over and I began to belittle his deeds, I said, ‘O ʿAbd Allāh! There was no estrangement or anger between my father and me. Rather, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say three times, “A man from the people of Paradise is about to appear before you,” and you appeared each time. I wanted to stay with you to observe what you do so I could follow it, but I have not seen you perform any great deed. What is it that has earned you what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said?’ He replied, ‘It is nothing more than what you have seen.’ So I left him. As I was walking away, he called me back and said, ‘It is only what you have seen—except that I hold no rancor in my heart toward any Muslim, nor do I envy anyone for what Allah has given him.’ ʿAbd Allāh said, ‘That is what has raised you, and it is a quality we cannot manage.’”
Al-Munādhirī said: “Aḥmad transmitted it with a chain on the conditions of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and al-Nasāʾī as well; their narrators are accepted by both of them, except for their shaykh Suwayd ibn Naṣr, who is reliable. Abū Yaʿlā and al-Bazzār narrated it in similar terms, and they named the unidentified Companion as Saʿd.”
The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said: