1106 — “When one of you is afflicted by a calamity, let him remember the calamity of losing me, for it is the greatest of all calamities.”

Ibn Saʿd (2/275) narrated it: Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Tanafisī informed us; he said: Fiṭr ibn Khalīfah informed us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, attributing it directly to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Dārimī (1/40) also narrated it through another route from Fiṭr with the same wording.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, but it is mursal. However, they were contradicted by ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥarrānī, who reported: Fiṭr ibn Khalīfah narrated to us, from Sharḥabīl ibn Saʿd, from Ibn ʿAbbās, attributing it directly to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Abū Nuʿaym narrated it in Akhbār Iṣbahān (1/158). Concerning this al-Ḥarrānī, al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful; he narrated extensively from weak and unknown narrators, and was therefore deemed weak, to the point that Ibn Numayr accused him of lying, although Ibn Maʿīn declared him trustworthy.”

I say: Sharḥabīl ibn Saʿd was likewise truthful, but his memory became confused. Through this route, it was narrated by Ibn ʿAdī and al-Bayhaqī in al-Shuʿab, as cited in Fayḍ al-Qadīr, which says: “Al-Ṭabarānī also narrated it in al-Kabīr from Sābiṭ al-Jumaḥī, and its chain contains Abū Burdah ʿAmr ibn Yazīd, who is weak. For this reason, the author marked it as weak, though it has supporting reports.”

I say: Among its supporting reports is that narrated by Ibn Mājah (1/485) through Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah: Muṣʿab ibn Muhammad narrated to us, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, opened a door between himself and the people, or lifted a curtain, and there were the people praying behind Abū Bakr. He praised Allah for the good state in which he saw them, and hoped that Allah would take his place among them, in view of the state in which he saw them. He then said: ‘O people, whoever among the people—or among the believers—is afflicted by a calamity, let him seek consolation in the calamity of losing me rather than in any calamity that befalls him through the loss of someone other than me. For no one of my community will be afflicted, after me, by a calamity more severe for him than my loss.’”