from Ibn Lahi‘ah, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Abi al-Ṣa‘bah, from Fudalah ibn ‘Ubayd, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Ibn ‘Adi said: “No one besides Ibn Lahi‘ah narrates it.”

I say: He is weak, but Yahya ibn Ayyub corroborated him, narrating it from Yazid ibn Abi Habib through the same chain. Al-Bayhaqi recorded it with the wording: “Whoever grows a gray hair in Islam, it will be a light for him on the Day of Resurrection.” A man said: “Some men pluck out their gray hairs.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, replied: “Whoever wishes may pluck out his gray hair!” Or, he said: “his light.”

I say: Thus, the hadith is good through this chain. It is authentic without the words, “A man said ...” and so on, since it has likewise been narrated from a number of Companions. Among them is ‘Amr ibn ‘Abasah, as recorded by Ibn Sa‘d (1/433), Ibn ‘Asakir in al-Tarikh (13/282/1), and others; it is documented in al-Ta‘liq ‘ala al-Mishkah (4459). Also among them are ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, as recorded by Ibn Hibban (1477), al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (1/4/1), al-‘Uqayli, and al-Diya’ in al-Mukhtarah (nos. 112 and 123, edited by me); Abu Hurayrah, as recorded by Ibn Hibban (1479); Nawf al-Bikali, in mursal form, as recorded by Ibn ‘Asakir (17/342/2); and Abu Najih al-Sulami, as recorded by Ibn Hibban (1478) and al-Hakim (3/50), who declared it authentic, and al-Dhahabi concurred with him. It is also narrated from Umm Sulaym by al-Hakim in al-Kuna and by al-Diya’ in al-Muntaqa min Masmu‘atihi bi-Marw (folio 83/1).

At the end, the latter added: “So long as he does not alter it.” This addition is rejected—indeed, false—because it occurs in none of the routes of transmission for the hadith except this one, and its chain is frail. It contains Salim Abu ‘Attab, whom Ibn Abi Hatim profiled (2/1/191) without mentioning either any narrator criticism or accreditation for him; thus, he is its defect. It also contains two other narrators whom I do not know.

It is authentically established from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, Abu Bakr, and ‘Umar that they altered their gray hair. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded that it be altered in more than one hadith in the two Sahihs and elsewhere. So would the reward of one who obeys his command, peace and blessings be upon him, be the loss of the light of his gray hair?!

I then found the aforementioned addition in al-Bayhaqi’s narration of the hadith of ‘Amr ibn ‘Abasah referred