- “If four qualities are found in you, then do not be concerned about whatever worldly gains you may have missed: safeguarding a trust, speaking truthfully, good character, and restraint in eating.”
Ibn Wahb recorded it in al-Jāmiʿ (84): Ibn Lahīʿah informed me, from al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Aḥmad (2/177) also recorded it: Ḥasan narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us with the same chain, and said: al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd al-Ḥaḍramī. Al-Kharāʾiṭī recorded it in Makārim al-Akhlāq (Noble Character) (pp. 6, 27, 52), as did al-Ḥākim (4/314), and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab (2/104/1), from al-Ḥākim, through several routes from Ibn Lahīʿah, with the same chain. Al-Ḥākim made no comment on it, nor did al-Dhahabī.
I say: This chain is good—indeed, authentic. Although Ibn Lahīʿah is weak, this is among the narrations of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb from him, and these are authentic.
It also has another route. Ibn Wahb and Ibn al-Mubārak recorded it in al-Zuhd (1204): Mūsā ibn ʿAlī ibn Rabāḥ informed us; he said: I heard my father narrate from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who said: He then mentioned it as attributed to the Companion.
I say: This is an authentic chain. Thus, it is established both as attributed to the Prophet and as attributed to the Companion, and there is no contradiction between the two. A narrator may sometimes not feel inclined to give its full attribution, and so report it as a Companion statement, as those well versed in this noble discipline know.