Note: In al-Targhīb (2/94), al-Mundhirī attributed this hadith to Abū Dāwūd, and al-Khaṭīb al-Tabrīzī followed him in this in al-Mishkāt (1998). This is an error; I do not know how it came to them.

563 — “Whoever fasts one day in Allah’s cause, Allah will place between him and the Fire a trench as great as the distance between heaven and earth.”

Al-Tirmidhī recorded it in his Sunan (11/32/2), as did Abū Ḥazm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ḥanbalī in Kitāb al-Furūsiyyah (1/7/2), both through al-Walīd ibn Jamīl, from al-Qāsim Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Abū Umāmah, from the Prophet, who said it.

Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a good, singular hadith narrated from Abū Umāmah.”

I say: It is as he said. Although there is criticism concerning al-Walīd and his teacher, it does not reduce their report below the rank of good, particularly since the hadith has a corroborating report from Abū al-Dardāʾ, traced back to the Prophet with the same wording.

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr and al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (1/107/1), through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Walīd al-ʿAdanī, who narrated to us from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from al-Aʿmash, from Bishr ibn ʿAṭiyyah, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from Umm al-Dardāʾ, from Abū al-Dardāʾ.

He said: “No one narrated it from Sufyān except ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Walīd.”

I say: He is truthful, though he sometimes erred, as al-Ḥāfiẓ said. However, Shahr ibn Ḥawshab is weak due to his poor retention, so his report may be used as supporting evidence. Thus, al-Mundhirī’s statement in al-Targhīb (2/62)—followed by al-Haythamī (3/194)—that “al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ and al-Ṣaghīr with a good chain of transmission,” is not correct, unless he meant that it is good by virtue of corroborating evidence; in that case, yes.