1419 — “Whoever mentions a person for something that is in him has backbitten him, and whoever mentions him for something that is not in him has slandered him.”

Abū al-Shaykh recorded it in al-Ṭabaqāt (p. 34) from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording.

I say: This chain of transmission is weak. This Abū Bakr—al-Ghassānī al-Shāmī—is weak. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam is unknown, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated. However, he was not alone in narrating it, for al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated it from his father, from Abū Hurayrah: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Do you know what backbiting is?’ They said, ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ He said, ‘It is to mention your brother in a way that he dislikes.’ It was said, ‘What if my brother actually has what I say about him?’ He said, ‘If he has what you say, then you have backbitten him; but if he does not have it, then you have slandered him.’”

Muslim recorded it (8/21), as did al-Tirmidhī (1/351–352), who deemed it a good, authentic hadith; al-Dārimī (2/299); and Aḥmad (2/230, 384, 386, and 458), through several routes from him. Abū Nuʿaym also recorded the hadith in Akhbār Aṣbahān (2/45), through Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam, with the same report. He said: “Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah and Abū ʿĀṣim narrated it from Ibn Jurayj, from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Maryam, with similar wording. Hishām ibn Yūsuf narrated it from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Sabrah, from Muslim ibn Abī Maryam, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, with similar wording.”

1420 — “The foremost fragrant herb of the people of Paradise is henna.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī transmitted it from him in al-Sunan (184/2), from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said: “My father, may Allah have mercy on him, told me: Muʿādh ibn Hishām told us; my father told me, from Qatādah, from Abū Ayyūb, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr,” attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Maqdisī said: