Know that I had previously traced the hadith through the narration of ʿImrān under no. 270, where I mentioned that it was also reported by a further group of Companions, numbering eight. I briefly cited their reports there without setting out their texts and wordings. The purpose was to inform readers of what the scholars of the Ummah and the imams of hadith have said concerning the victorious group: namely, that they are the people of hadith. I have now turned my attention to tracing the sources of their reports, as well as those of others whose wordings have been cited, so that the benefits and additional details they contain—details that cannot be obtained except through this source-tracing—may become clear. Allah is the Giver of success.
- “Were you not to commit sins, Allah would create a people who would commit sins, and He would forgive them.”
Muslim (8/94), al-Tirmidhī (2/270), and Aḥmad (5/414) narrated it through Muḥammad ibn Qays—the preacher of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—from Abū Ṣirmah, from Abū Ayyūb, who said when death approached him: “I had withheld from you something that I heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say…” He then mentioned it.
Al-Tirmidhī said: “A good, singular hadith.”
I say: The reason al-Tirmidhī did not classify it as authentic—Allah knows best—despite the trustworthiness of its narrators is that there is a break between Abū Ṣirmah, a Companion whose name was Mālik ibn Qays, and Muḥammad ibn Qays, who did not hear from him. Al-Ḥāfiẓ says in his biography in al-Taqrīb: “Trustworthy, of the sixth generation; his reports from the Companions are disconnected.” However, Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī corroborated him in Muslim. It has also been narrated from a group of Companions, and has preceded with the wording: “If you had no sins” (no. 968).
We mentioned some supporting reports for it there (969–970), and referred to this hadith. Two supporting reports for it have also preceded: the hadith of Abū Hurayrah (1950) and the hadith of Anas ibn Mālik (1951). Each of them contains an important addition, with the wording: