I say: It seems possible to me that the objectionable element originated with Ibn Hibban’s shaykh, al-Fadl ibn al-Hubab, for some adverse criticism has been made of him. In al-Lisan, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar cited another hadith of his with the wording: “Whoever is generous in his spending on himself and his family on the Day of Ashura, Allah will grant him abundance for the rest of that year.” All of its narrators are trustworthy, yet al-Hafiz considered it likely that the error in it came from al-Fadl. He said: “Perhaps he narrated it after his books had burned.”

I refrained from attributing the objectionable element to Muhammad ibn Amr because Muhammad ibn Bishr narrated it from him with the first, preserved wording; Ibn Bishr was a trustworthy hadith master, as were those who corroborated him in al-Tirmidhi and elsewhere. Nor did I attribute it to Khalid ibn Abd Allah al-Tahhan al-Wasiti, for he was trustworthy and thoroughly reliable.

This variant has also been narrated through another very weak chain. Ibn Jarir narrated it (12/132), saying: Ibn Waki narrated to us; Amr ibn Muhammad narrated to us from Ibrahim ibn Yazid, from Amr ibn Dinar, from Ikrimah, from Ibn Abbas, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Had he—that is, Joseph—not made the statement he made, he would not have remained in prison for as long as he did, since he sought relief from someone other than Allah.”

Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir said in his Tafsir (2/479): “This hadith is very weak, because Sufyan ibn Waki is weak, and Ibrahim ibn Yazid—namely, al-Khuzi—is weaker than he is.” Ibn Jarir also narrated it through an authentic chain from al-Hasan al-Basri as a mursal report, with similar wording. Ahmad likewise narrated it in al-Zuhd (p. 80). In one of his versions: “May Allah have mercy on Joseph. Had the messenger come to me after such a long imprisonment, I would have hastened to respond.”