2313 — “Whoever among you is able to maintain a hidden store of righteous deeds, let him do so.”

Al-Khaṭīb transmitted it in al-Tārīkh (11/263) through ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Sarī ibn Sahl al-Warrāq: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṭālaqānī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl ibn Ghazwān narrated to us from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, who attributed it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

He said: Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Fawāris said, “This ʿUmar was exceedingly unreliable in hadith: he would claim reports he had not heard and piece them together.” Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Furāt said: “He had memorized a fair portion of hadith, and I wrote down a great deal from him. Then his books were lost, except for a small amount. He narrated from al-Bāghandī hadiths having no basis, and his doctrinal views were unsound.”

I say: All the narrators above him are trustworthy. However, al-Dāraquṭnī identified another hidden defect in it; his treatment of it indicates that ʿUmar al-Warrāq was not alone in transmitting it. He said: “Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl attributed it to the Prophet, and no one corroborated him in this. Shuʿbah, Zuhayr, al-Qaṭṭān, Hushaym, Ibn ʿUyaynah, Abū Muʿāwiyah, ʿAbdah, and Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated it from Ismāʿīl, from Qays, from al-Zubayr, as attributed to the Companion; and this is the authentic version.”

Al-Manāwī cited this from Ibn al-Jawzī while explaining the hadith, whereas its original source—meaning al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr—attributed it to al-Ḍiyāʾ’s narration from al-Zubayr, that is, as attributed to the Prophet. I say: I referred to al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah and found that he transmitted it there (1/296), through two other chains from Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl, through him, as attributed to the Prophet. Thus, what I had inferred from al-Dāraquṭnī’s treatment is confirmed. Praise be to Allah.