- “When Allah, Most High, bestows a blessing upon a servant, He loves to see the effect of that blessing upon him. He dislikes wretchedness and the pretence of wretchedness, detests the importunate beggar, and loves the modest, chaste, self-restrained person.”
Al-Bayhaqi transmitted it in al-Shuʿab (2/231/1), and al-Sahmi in Tarikh Jurjan (p. 101), from Hatim ibn Yunus al-Jurjani: Ismaʿil ibn Saʿid al-Jurjani narrated to us; ʿIsa ibn Khalid al-Balkhi narrated to us; Warqaʾ narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. He then remarked: “There is weakness in this chain of transmission.”
I say: I have not been able to discern the basis for this assessment. Warqaʾ—who is Warqaʾ ibn ʿUmar al-Yashkuri—and those above him are trustworthy narrators found in the two Sahihs. As for ʿIsa ibn Khalid al-Balkhi, he apparently is ʿIsa ibn Khalid al-Khurasani, since he belonged to this generation. Ibn Abi Hatim included his biography (3/1/275) and related from ʿAmr ibn ʿAli al-Fallas that he said: “He was trustworthy.”
Ismaʿil ibn Saʿid al-Jurjani was al-Shalanji al-Tabari. Ibn Abi Hatim included his biography (1/1/174) and related that Imam Ahmad said: “May Allah have mercy on Abu Ishaq. He held a distinguished position in Islam and was one of the people of knowledge and virtue.” Al-Hasan ibn ʿAli said: “He was the most trustworthy of those from whom I wrote, except for a few.” Al-Sahmi likewise gave him a favourable biographical notice, in which he cited this hadith and said: “It is said that Ismaʿil ibn Saʿid al-Shalanji was alone in transmitting this hadith through this chain of transmission.”
I say: Ahmad ibn Saʿid ibn Jarir corroborated him, narrating it from ʿIsa ibn Khalid. Abu al-Shaykh transmitted it in Tabaqat al-Asbahaniyyin (166/1), and Abu Nuʿaym in Akhbar Asbahan (1/78), in the biographical notice of this Ibn Jarir, whom he declared trustworthy. It is an authentic hadith, supported by corroborating reports that attest to its authenticity. I shall mention here the most important of them: al-Tabarani (no. 5308) and al-Diya in al-Mukhtarah narrated from Zuhayr ibn Abi ʿAlqamah al-Dabiʿi, who said: