Al-Haythami said (4/220):
“Ahmad and al-Ṭabarānī related it with the same wording, and in one version he added: ‘I also enjoin you to hold fast to tasbīḥ (declaring Allah’s transcendence), for it is the worship of all created beings, and to takbīr (proclaiming “Allāhu akbar”).’ Al-Bazzār transmitted it as well through the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar, and the transmitters in Ahmad’s chain are trustworthy.”
Explanation of unfamiliar expressions
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“mubhamah” – that is, something prohibited and sealed off, as the context indicates. Ibn al-Athīr did not record this word in al-Nihāyah, nor did Shaykh Muḥammad Ṭāhir al-Hindī in Majmaʿ Baḥar al-Anwār, even though it properly falls within the scope of both works.
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“qaṣamtuhunna.” Another recension reads “faṣamtuhunna” with an initial fāʾ. Ibn al-Athīr said: “al-qaṣm means to break something and separate its pieces, whereas with the fāʾ it means to break it without separating the pieces.” I (al-Albānī) say: the reading with the fāʾ is more fitting to the meaning, and Allah knows best.
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“safaha al-ḥaqq” – i.e. to treat the truth as ignorance, to make light of it, and to fail to see it in its proper weight and gravity. Muslim relates the wording “baṭara al-ḥaqq”; the sense is identical.
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“ghamaṣa (or ghamṭa) al-nās” – i.e. to despise people, revile them, and belittle them. Another narration has “ghamṭ al-nās,” and the meaning is likewise the same.
Points of benefit drawn from the ḥadīth
I say: The narration contains many benefits; I shall limit myself to mentioning a few:
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The legitimacy of leaving a bequest when death approaches.
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The superiority of tahlīl (saying lā ilāha illallāh) and tasbīḥ, and that they are a cause for the provision granted to all creatures.
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That the Balance on the Day of Resurrection is a real, established entity possessing two pans. This is part of the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah, contrary to the Muʿtazilah and their modern-day followers who reject what the authentic ḥadīths establish of matters of belief on the pretext that they are solitary reports (aḥād) which, according to them, do not yield certainty. I have refuted this notion in my book ‘With Professor al-Ṭanṭāwī’; may Allah facilitate its completion.