Example Thirteen:
Hadith no. 191, p. 297: “He is not one of us who cheats a Muslim, harms him, or schemes against him.”
I say: The compiler placed this report under the heading “From authentication to weakening,” yet this ḥadīth belongs neither to that section nor to any other; in truth, it should never have been included in the book at all.
The report is made up of two clauses:
- “He is not one of us who cheats a Muslim.”
- “…or harms him or plots against him,” meaning: he is not one of us who harms or schemes against him.
The first clause is authentic, and al-Albānī pointed this out in the margin of Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ, p. 712, under hadith 4936, where he wrote: “Its first portion is sound through another chain; see al-Ṣaḥīḥah 6407, 5440, and 6406.”
He listed the report in Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ solely because of the second clause, marking it weak, and later entered it in al-Ḍaʿīfah 3290, grading it fabricated (mawḍūʿ). He stated:
“Now that I have examined its isnād, I have moved from declaring it weak to declaring it fabricated, owing to the presence of this liar in its chain—even though the first clause is authentic through other routes, as I noted in the commentary on Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ.”