689 — “Allah has refused to grant repentance to the killer of a believer.”

It was recorded by Muḥammad ibn Ḥamzah al-Faqīh in his Aḥādīth (folio 215/2), al-Wāḥidī in al-Wasīṭ (1/180/2), and al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Mukhtārah (127/1), through two chains from Suwayd ibn Naṣr, who said: Ibn al-Mubārak narrated to us, from Sulaymān al-Taymī—though the first two added, “from Ḥumayd”—from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Sulaymān al-Taymī heard from Anas, so its chain is continuous whether this addition is established or not. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators.

In al-Jāmiʿayn, this hadith is also attributed to al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, but I have not seen it there under Anas’s entry. Allah knows best. Al-Fayḍ states: “It says in al-Firdaws: ‘Authentic.’”

A group also narrated it from ʿUqbah ibn Mālik al-Laythī. Its occasion was that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, dispatched a military detachment which raided a people. One man from among them broke away, and a member of the detachment pursued him with his sword drawn. The man said, “I am a Muslim,” but he killed him. This was reported to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he spoke sternly about it, then cited this hadith.

I say: The hadith of ʿUqbah was recorded by al-Nasāʾī in al-Siyar (1/39/1) and Aḥmad (4/110; 5/288–289), through Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, from Bishr ibn ʿĀṣim, from him. Its wording is: “Indeed, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, refuses to grant repentance to whoever kills a believer,” which he said three times. Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from this Bishr, who was al-Laythī. Ibn Abī Ḥātim listed him (1/1/360), but mentioned neither any criticism nor accreditation concerning him. Ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabaqāt (7/48–49) and al-Ḥākim (1/18–19) also recorded it by this route, except that they said, “Naṣr ibn ʿĀṣim al-Laythī.” Al-Ḥākim said: