934 — “Whoever obtains a meal through a Muslim man, Allah will feed him the like of it from Hell; whoever obtains clothing through a Muslim man, Allah will clothe him with the like of it in Hell; and whoever seeks a position of renown through a Muslim man, Allah will place him in a position of public exposure on the Day of Resurrection.”

Al-Ḥākim (4/127–128) and al-Dīnawarī, in al-Muntaqā min al-Mujālasah (162/1), related it through Ibn Jurayj, who said: Sulaymān said: Waqqās ibn Rabīʿah narrated to us that al-Mustawrid narrated to them that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said it—then he mentioned it. Ibn ʿAsākir also related it (17/391–392) through several routes from Ibn Jurayj with this chain. In some of them, Ibn Jurayj explicitly used a direct-transmission formula, but the chain leading to him contains Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ, who is weak.

He then related it through the route of Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad narrated to us; my father informed us; he said: Sulaymān ibn Mūsā informed us; Waqqās ibn Rabīʿah narrated it to us with the same chain. He then related it by another route from Abū ʿĀṣim al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad: Ibn Jurayj informed us from Sulaymān, with the same chain. Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic,” and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

I say: How can that be, when Ibn Jurayj used the ambiguous formula “from”? Yet al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad corroborated him in Abū Yaʿlā’s narration, and he is trustworthy, being among the narrators relied upon by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim. It also has another corroborating chain: al-Bukhārī, in al-Adab al-Mufrad (240), and Abū Dāwūd (4881) related it through Baqiyyah, from Ibn Thawbān, from his father, from Makḥūl, from Waqqās ibn Rabīʿah, with the same wording. However, Makḥūl practised tadlīs, as did Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd.

I have found for it a strong supporting report. Ibn al-Mubārak said in al-Zuhd (707): Jaʿfar ibn Ḥayyān informed us, from al-Ḥasan, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it—then he mentioned it.

This is an authentic chain of transmission, but it is mursal. In sum, the hadith is authentic when all these routes are considered together. And Allah knows best.