He also cited a hadith(1): “You are the first to believe in me and the first to shake my hand on the Day of Resurrection. You are the Greatest Truthful One, and you are the Distinguisher who separates truth from falsehood. You are the leader of the believers, while wealth is the leader of the unbelievers—or the leader(2) of the wrongdoers”(3).

He said: “This hadith is fabricated. Its first chain(4) includes Abbād ibn Yaqūb. Ibn Hibbān said: ‘He narrated objectionable reports from well-known narrators and therefore deserved to be abandoned as a narrator.’ It also includes Alī ibn Hāshim. Ibn Hibbān said: ‘He used to narrate objectionable reports from well-known narrators and was extreme in his Shiism.’ It further includes Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, of whom Yahyā said: ‘He is of no standing as a narrator’(5).

“As for the second chain, it includes Abū al-Salt al-Harawī, who was a vile, lying Rāfidī(6). Both Abbād and Abū al-Salt thus transmitted it(7), and Allah knows best which of them stole it from the other.”

I say: Perhaps its defect stems from Muhammad ibn Abd Allah.

It was also narrated by way of Ibn Abbās through a chain containing Abd Allah ibn Zāhir(8). Ibn Maīn said: “He is of no standing; no decent person would record hadith from him.”

Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Jawzī said: “He was extreme in his Rāfidism.”