(1) I—Muhammad—note that the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy on him, originally declared the hadith authentic in the Introduction to Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Daʿifah, vol. 1, p. 26 (al-Maʿarif, 2nd ed.). I further state that this is to be added to the list of narrations whose grading the Shaykh later retracted. The hadith was likewise declared sound by Imam Ibn Kathir, may Allah have mercy on him, in his Tafsir. 49 – “Every substance that induces intoxication is khamr, and every intoxicant is unlawful. Whoever drinks an intoxicant will have his prayer depreciated for forty mornings; if he repents, Allah will accept his repentance, but if he does so a fourth time, it becomes incumbent upon Allah to make him drink from tinat al-khabal.” They asked, “What is tinat al-khabal?” He answered, “The pus of the people of Hell.” “And whoever gives it to a child who cannot yet distinguish the lawful from the unlawful, it is incumbent upon Allah to make him drink from tinat al-khabal.” (The entire clause about giving it to a child is munkar.) — Silsilat al-Daʿifah, no. 6328. Shaykh al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “It was recorded by Abu Dawud (3680), and through his route by al-Bayhaqi in the Sunan and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhid: ‘Muhammad b. Rafiʿ al-Naysaburi narrated to us; Ibrahim b. ʿUmar al-Sanʿani narrated to us; I heard al-Nuʿman relate from Tawus, from Ibn ʿAbbas, from the Prophet ﷺ …’—and he mentioned the hadith. I say: This chain is weak; all its transmitters are reliable except Ibrahim b. ʿUmar al-Sanʿani, whose status is unknown. Ibn Hajar states in al-Taqrib that he is mastur and clarifies in Tahdhib that he is not Ibn Kaysan, who is later and trustworthy. Identifying him as someone other than Ibn Kaysan is essential, yet many scholars overlooked this, assumed him to be Ibn Kaysan, and on that basis authenticated the hadith. I myself was among them; I had included it in al-Sahihah (no. 2039). I therefore seek Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him: ‘Our Lord, do not call us to account if we forget or err.’ What alerted me to this mistake was finding the hadith in Ibn al-Qattan’s Wahm wa-l-Iham (2/172/1-2), where he listed it under ‘Reports that ʿAbd al-Haqq deemed weak although they are in fact sound or good, and whose alleged defects are not genuine.’ … I say: After seeing Ibn al-Qattan’s grading, I returned to al-Mundhiri’s al-Targhib, expecting the report to be there and assuming I had commented on it earlier. I found that I had indeed declared it defective because al-Sanʿani is mastur, because Abu Zurʿa rejected it, and because al-Bayhaqi hinted at its weakness. Continuing the investigation, I discovered that—despite this—I had nevertheless graded it sahih in al-Sahihah (vol. 5, no. 2039). I therefore re-examined its chain anew, realized my error, and concluded that the ruling I had placed in my note on al-Targhib was the correct one. Praise be to Allah, who guided us to this; without His guidance we would never have been guided. The rejection referred to appears in Ibn Abi Hatim’s al-ʿIlal (2/36): Abu Zurʿa was asked about a hadith narrated by Muhammad b. Rafiʿ from Ibrahim b. ʿUmar al-Sanʿani (he quoted it in full); Abu Zurʿa remarked, ‘This hadith is munkar.’ I say: Further confirmation of its aberrant nature is that al-Tabarani transmitted it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (11/192/11465) through another route from ʿAtaʾ b. Abi Rabah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, only up to the words ‘the pus of the people of Hell,’ omitting the addition about ‘giving it to a child,’ which is the questionable part. The remainder, however, is reported by several Companions; al-Mundhiri brought their versions in al-Targhib (3: 185-187), nos. 32, 38, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51 of the Maniri edition. Some were also cited by al-Bayhaqi in Shuʿab (5/7-8), including the report of Ibn ʿUmar with a sound chain but without the addition. Al-Bayhaqi then alluded to the weakness of the addition, saying afterward, ‘It is also narrated from Ibn ʿAbbas …,’ and he quoted the tail that contains the extra wording. See Silsilat al-Daʿifah, hadith 6328, pp. 718-722, and Daʿif al-Targhib, no. 1424. This is a hadith the Shaykh graded weak in Daʿif al-Jamiʿ and later declared fabricated in Silsilat al-Daʿifah. Its wording is: 50 – ‘The vilest of my community are those who show the greatest insolence toward my Companions.’