With this corroboration, the hadith is established as authentic. Praise be to Allah for His enabling grace.

The hadith is also corroborated by a report from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, as well as by one from Abu Qatadah. The chain of transmission of the former is good, as I have shown in my authentication of Mishkat al-Masabih (2347). I then found two further corroborating narrators for it: al-Tabarani transmitted it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (1679) through Salih ibn Hatim ibn Wardan and Huraym ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿla, both of whom said: “Al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulayman narrated to us,” with the same chain. He then transmitted it (1680) through Hammad ibn Salamah, who said: “Abu ʿImran narrated to us,” with the same chain. This is another strong supporting narration from Hammad corroborating Sulayman, and its chain is likewise authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.

His statement, “yataʾalla,” means: “to swear an oath.” The noun al-aliyya, following the morphological pattern of ghaniyya, means “an oath.” Al-Nawawi said: “The hadith indicates the position of Ahl al-Sunnah that sins may be forgiven without repentance, if Allah wills to forgive them.”

I say: It also contains explicit proof that presumptuously swearing about what Allah will do nullifies one’s deeds as well, just as disbelief, abandoning the ʿAsr prayer, and similar matters do. See my note on my book Sahih al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib (1/192). Its first volume has been published, praise be to Allah, and I hope that Allah will facilitate the publication and circulation of its remainder soon, if Allah Most High wills.

1686 — “The food of one suffices for two; the food of two suffices for three and four; and the food of four suffices for five and six.”

Ibn Majah transmitted it (3255) through ʿAmr ibn Dinar, the household steward of the family of al-Zubayr, who said: “I heard Salim ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar, from his father, from his grandfather ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab,” in a report attributed to the Prophet.