And al-Suyūṭī cites this ḥadīth in al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr through the transmissions of Aḥmad, ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Bayhaqī on the authority of Abū Saʿīd, and through Ibn al-Najjār on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās. He also records it (1/293/1) from Abū Yaʿlā on the authority of Abū Saʿīd with the additional wording:

“It neither brings one’s appointed time any nearer nor drives one’s provision any farther away.”

Thus he overlooked that it is found in Musnad Aḥmad, as we have mentioned, and likewise failed to note that the ḥadīth is in al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, and al-Mustadrak as well!

The ḥadīth contains an emphatic prohibition against concealing the truth out of fear of people or in greed for livelihood. Anyone who hides it for fear of being harmed—whether through beating, verbal abuse, cutting off his income, fear of losing their respect, and the like—falls under the prohibition and opposes the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. If this is the condition of someone who merely withholds the truth while knowing it, then what of the one who goes further still, bearing false witness against innocent Muslims and accusing them in their religion and creed, just to curry favour with the rabble or out of fear that they will accuse him if he does not follow them in their misguidance and slander?! O Allah, keep us firm upon the truth, and if You decree a trial for Your servants, then take us to Yourself free of tribulation.

169 – “Every sermon in which there is no tashahhud is like a mutilated hand.”

Related by Abū Dāwūd (4841), Ibn Ḥibbān (1994), al-Bayhaqī (3/209), and Aḥmad (2/302, 343), and by al-Ḥarbī in Ghārīb al-Ḥadīth (5/82/1), through several routes from ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād – ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb – from his father – from Abū Hurayrah, as a marfūʿ report. Al-Bayhaqī then narrated from Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Salamah: “I heard Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj say: ‘No one has transmitted this ḥadīth from ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb except ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād.’ I said to him:”