on al-Tabarani. Moreover, Abu Salih has a third corroborating narrator: al-Muttalib ibn Abd Allah ibn Hantab. Al-Tabarani narrated it (3124).

2244 — “Avoid the seven major sins.” The people fell silent, and no one spoke. He then said, “Will you not ask me about them? Associating partners with Allah, killing a soul, fleeing from the battlefield, consuming an orphan’s property, consuming ribā, falsely accusing a chaste woman of adultery, and returning to Bedouin life after the Hijrah.”

Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (6/124/5636): Ahmad ibn Rushdayn narrated to us; Amr ibn Khalid al-Harrani narrated to us; Ibn Lahiah narrated to us, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Muhammad ibn Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah, from his father, who said: “I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, saying from the pulpit...” He then mentioned it.

I say: This chain of transmission is weak because of the weakness of Ahmad ibn Rushdayn, as well as Ibn Lahiah. Al-Haythami indicated in al-Majma' (1/103) that it was defective on the latter’s account.

But I say that he was not alone in narrating it. Al-Bukhari said in al-Tarikh al-Kabir (1/1/107): “Ishaq informed us, from Abdah, who heard Ibn Ishaq, from Muhammad ibn Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah, who heard his father, who heard Ali: ‘The seven major sins.’ And al-Walid ibn Kathir said: ‘Muhammad ibn Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah narrated to me the like of it.’” He cited this in the biographical entry of this Muhammad ibn Sahl, without mentioning any criticism or accreditation concerning him.

These two narrations cited by al-Bukhari have revealed a further hidden defect in al-Tabarani’s narration: the hadith is a narration on the authority of Ali, not of Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah, for both narrations relate it from Ali, and they are