- “By Him in Whose hand is my soul, Allah does not bestow His mercy except upon one who is merciful.” They said, “All of us are merciful.” He replied, “It is not merely the mercy that one of you shows to his companion; rather he must show mercy to all people.”
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī narrated it in Majlis 86 of his Amālī (2/77) through the chain of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq → Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb → Sinān ibn Saʿd → Anas ibn Mālik, as a marfūʿ report, and he said: “This ḥadīth is ḥasan gharīb. Concerning Sinān ibn Saʿd it has been said: Saʿd ibn Sinān, and it has been said: Saʿīd ibn Sinān. Ibn Maʿīn and Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy. Ibn Ḥibbān added: ‘The Egyptians report from him, though they differ about him, and I hope that the correct form is Sinān ibn Saʿd.’
“He continued: ‘After examining his narrations I found that what is related under the name Sinān ibn Saʿd resembles the reports of reliable narrators, whereas what is related under the names Saʿd ibn Sinān and Saʿīd ibn Sinān contains objectionable material—as though they were two different people. No one set down his ḥadīth because of the confusion about his name.’ Al-Nasāʾī said that he is munkar al-ḥadīth (rejected in ḥadīth).
I say: Sinān is not alone in transmitting it; Akhshan al-Sudūsī also followed him up from Anas. We have reported it in al-Bayhaqī’s Kitāb al-Adab with the wording: “None of you will enter Paradise except one who is merciful.” They said, “O Messenger of Allah, all of us are merciful.” He said, “It is not the mercy of any one of you for himself and his family until he shows mercy to the people.” This Akhshan was listed by Ibn Ḥibbān among the trustworthy.
Al-Rāfiʿī likewise cited, in his Amālī, a marfūʿ narration from Thawbān: “The highest of you in rank in Paradise will be the one who is most merciful to the masses.” I did not deem it fitting to include that report here because its chain contains, in succession, five narrators who range between weak, a liar, and unknown; it comes through the transmission of Khālid ibn