2014 — “A man said: ‘By Allah, Allah will not forgive so-and-so.’ Allah then said: ‘Who is this who swears by Me that I will not forgive so-and-so? I have indeed forgiven so-and-so and rendered your deeds void.’”

Muslim (8/36) and al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (1/84/1) recorded it through several routes from Muʿtamir ibn Sulayman, from his father, from Abu ʿImran, from Jundub, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, said it. Al-Tabarani then recorded it through the route of Hammad ibn Salamah, who said: Abu ʿImran informed us, from Jundub: “A man swore that Allah would not forgive so-and-so, so Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, revealed to His Prophet—or to a prophet—that this was tantamount to a sin; so let him begin his deeds anew.”

I say: Its chain is authentic and attributed to the Companion, but it has the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet, as indicated by what precedes it.

Note: Al-Suyuti cited the hadith from al-Tabarani’s narration with the wording: “A man said: ‘Allah will not forgive so-and-so,’ so Allah, Exalted is He, revealed to one of the prophets that this was a sin; so let him begin his deeds anew.” As you can see, this wording has been conflated from al-Tabarani’s two versions, with slight alteration to some of the wording in the second of them.

The phrase “swears by Me” means: he takes an oath. The word for “oath” is formed on the pattern of the word for “a song.”

This hadith’s documentation has already preceded, more extensively and more strongly than here, under no. 1685. My daughter Umm ʿAbd Allah—may Allah reward her well—drew my attention to this. I nearly deleted it and printed another hadith in its place, but then I decided to leave it as it is, because it contains two benefits not previously mentioned there: first, the aforementioned note; and second, clarification that al-Tabarani’s narration through Hammad ibn Salamah is attributed to the Companion. I had omitted to mention this there. Allah is the Grantor of success.