the opening page of his Abridgement—and he did the same in his other book, which he called The Best of Tafsirs. He adorned both with four hadiths, providing fabricated and plainly false source attributions for every one of them. Beneath them he placed the name of the person who financed the printing of the two aforementioned books: al-Sayyid Hasan Abbas Sharbatli. It is of no concern to me to establish whether this was written by him or by al-Sabuni, for the purpose is to warn readers against attributing lies to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and to make them aware of those who claim knowledge, so that they may beware of them. The four hadiths, as he cited them, are:
- “The nobles of my community are the bearers of the Quran.” Al-Tirmidhi.
- “Whoever recites a letter from the Book of Allah shall have a good deed ...” Al-Bukhari.
- “Recite the Quran, for on the Day of Resurrection it will come as an intercessor for its companion.” Al-Bukhari.
- “I have left among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray ...” Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
Thus, his attribution of these four hadiths to the authorities mentioned is a lie against them. Here is the explanation:
As for the first hadith, al-Tirmidhi did not narrate it at all. Rather, it was narrated by al-Tabarani and others who are lax in narration and do not confine themselves to authentic hadiths. (See al-Suyuti’s Minor and Major Compendia.)
As for the second and third hadiths, attributing them to al-Bukhari is a lie, for he did not narrate either of them. Rather, al-Tirmidhi narrated the second and graded it authentic; it is cited in the commentary on al-Tahawiyyah (p. 206, fourth edition).
As for the third, Muslim narrated it, not al-Bukhari, as stated in al-Targhib, the two Compendia, and other works.
As for the fourth, Imam Malik alone narrated it in al-Muwatta with a double break in its chain. However, it has a corroborating report from Ibn Abbas, which I cited in al-Mishkat, as well as another report with the same meaning; discussion of it will follow