I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission meeting the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, though it has been criticized on grounds that do not detract from it. Ibn Abī Ḥātim said after citing it: “Abū Zurʿah said: This hadith is attributed to the Companion; no one attributes it to the Prophet except ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mukhtār, and there is nothing wrong with his hadith.”

I say: He is trustworthy, and al-Bukhārī and Muslim relied upon him in their Ṣaḥīḥs. Maʿmar—who was his equal, or inferior to him, in precision—differed from him, narrating it from Ayyūb, from ʿIkrimah, as a report attributed to the Companion. Al-Ṭabarānī also recorded it (11846).

I say: This too is an authentic chain of transmission, despite some minor criticism concerning Maʿmar. The addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted in a case such as this. And Allah knows best. Al-Ḍiyāʾ recorded the report attributed to the Prophet through al-Ṭabarānī’s route in al-Mukhtārah (64 / 35 / 2).

Know that the hadith does not mean that the snakes now in existence are transformed jinn. Rather, it means that some jinn were transformed into snakes, just as some Jews were transformed into monkeys and swine. However, they did not leave offspring, as stated in the authentic hadith: “Allah has not made for a transformed creature any offspring or descendants; monkeys and swine had existed before that.” Its documentation will follow under no. 2264, Allah Most High willing.

1825 — “The snake is a noxious creature; the scorpion is a noxious creature; the mouse is a noxious creature; and the crow is a noxious creature.”

Ibn Mājah (3249) and Aḥmad (6 / 209 and 238) recorded it from al-Masʿūdī, who said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Ṣiddīq narrated to us from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah said these words.

I say: All its narrators are trustworthy, except that al-Masʿūdī suffered a decline in his memory.