He thus added the term “divine ordainment” to its text, though it has no basis in any of the sources he cited, nor in any of the others I have mentioned. Moreover, his statement, “The two Shaykhs narrated it,” gives the impression that the hadith is found in al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ, since that is what is understood when a report is attributed to him without qualification—especially when he is coupled with his counterpart Muslim and they are referred to as “the two Shaykhs.” In fact, al-Bukhārī only narrated it in Afʿāl al-ʿIbād, as stated above. How many such misleading impressions, and other matters besides, are to be found in it—matters that prompted me, a quarter-century ago, to critique it in its first volume; I had published part of that critique in some Islamic journals.
- “If one of you strikes someone, let him avoid the face, for Allah created Adam in His image.”
Aḥmad narrated it (2/244): Sufyān narrated to us, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, attributing it to the Prophet. This is an authentic chain according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs, though neither of them narrated it. Muslim narrated only its first half, with the wording: “If one of you fights his brother …”
Al-Ājurrī also narrated it in al-Sharīʿah (p. 314), and al-Bayhaqī in al-Asmāʾ (p. 290), through several routes from Sufyān with this chain. He then narrated it through Ibn ʿAjlān, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah, with the same wording. Its chain is good.
Al-Bukhārī also narrated it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (p. 27), from Ibn ʿAjlān, who said: “My father and Saʿīd informed me, from Abū Hurayrah, attributing it to the Prophet,” but without the second half. It is also good. Likewise, al-Bukhārī narrated it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (5/138) through another weak route from