- “Beware of excess in religion, for those before you were destroyed only through excess in religion.”
It was narrated by al-Nasa’i (2/49), Ibn Majah (2/242), Ibn Khuzaymah (1/282/2), Ibn Hibban (1011), al-Hakim (1/466), al-Bayhaqi (5/127), Ahmad (1/215 and 347), and al-Diya’ in al-Mukhtarah (59/200/2), through Awf ibn Abi Jamilah, who said: Ziyad ibn Husayn narrated to me from Abu al-Aliyah, from Ibn Abbas, who said:
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to me on the morning of al-Aqabah, while standing upon his mount: “Pick up some pebbles for me.” So I picked up for him small pebbles suitable for casting. He placed them in his hand and said twice, “Use pebbles like these.” Then he gestured with his hand—Yahya, one of its narrators, indicated that he raised it—and mentioned the hadith quoted above.
Al-Hakim said: “It is authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, but this is not so, since al-Bukhari did not narrate from Ziyad ibn Husayn in his Sahih. Thus, it meets Muslim’s criterion alone. Al-Nawawi likewise graded it authentic in al-Majmuʿ (8/171), as did Ibn Taymiyyah in al-Iqtida’ (p. 51).
- “Beware of excessive mutual praise, for it is slaughter.”
Ibn Majah (2/407) narrated it through Saʿd ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, from Maʿbad al-Juhani, from Muʿawiyah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Zawa’id states: “Its chain of transmission is good, because Maʿbad al-Juhani is a narrator concerning whom there is disagreement, while the remaining narrators in the chain are trustworthy.”
I say: It is as he said. Fiḍ al-Qadir states: “Ahmad, Ibn Maniʿ, al-Harith, and al-Daylami also narrated it from him.”
I say: In Ahmad, it occurs as part of the hadith, “When Allah intends good for someone...” The discussion concerning it has already preceded there (1196).
- “When one of you is brought food by his servant, who has attended to its heat, labor, and expense, let him seat him with him. If he declines, then let him place a morsel in the servant’s hand.”