2051 — “The major sins are associating partners with Allah, despairing of Allah’s relief, and losing hope in Allah’s mercy.”

Al-Bazzār recorded it in his Musnad (p. 18, among its supplementary reports): ʿAbd Allah ibn Isḥāq al-ʿAṭṭār narrated to us; al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Makhlad narrated to us; Shabīb ibn Bishr narrated to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that a man said: “O Messenger of Allah, what are the major sins?” He said: “Associationism ...”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, were it not that I did not know this al-ʿAṭṭār. Perhaps one of the earlier scholars knew him, or found a corroborating report for him. For al-Haythamī said in al-Majmaʿ (1/104): “Al-Bazzār and al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and its narrators have been declared trustworthy.” Al-Manāwī said: “The compiler marked it as good. Al-Zayn al-ʿIrāqī said in his commentary on al-Tirmidhī: ‘Its chain is good.’”

I say: We have not found it in al-Ṭabarānī’s al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr through this route, with this wording, attributed to the Prophet. Rather, he narrated it as a statement attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās in one of his lengthy hadiths, saying (3/187/1): Bakr ibn Sahl narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ṣāliḥ informed us; Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, with similar wording. This is a weak chain of transmission.

It has a corroborating report attributed to the Companion Ibn Masʿūd, narrated by Maʿmar from Abū Isḥāq, from Wabrah, from ʿĀmir Abū al-Ṭufayl, from Ibn Masʿūd, with the same wording. Misʿar corroborated him, narrating it from Wabrah with the same wording. This is an authentic chain of transmission, as al-Haythamī said. ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd also corroborated them, narrating it from Abū Wāʾil, from ʿAbd Allah, with the same wording.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Al-Ṭabarānī recorded all of them in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (3/13/1).