2439 — “No servant truly believes until he believes in the divine decree, its good and its evil, and until he knows that what befell him could not have missed him, and that what missed him could not have befallen him.”

It was transmitted by al-Tirmidhi (2/21) and Ibn ‘Adi in al-Kamil (217/1), through Abdullah ibn Maymun, from Ja‘far ibn Muhammad, from his father, from Jabir ibn Abdullah, in a report attributed to the Prophet. Al-Tirmidhi said: “It is a singular hadith; we know it only through the hadith of Abdullah ibn Maymun, and he is rejected in hadith transmission.”

I say: Nevertheless, the hadith is authentic, for its various parts are attested in other hadiths. The first is from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb, from his father, from his grandfather, in a report attributed to the Prophet, up to the words: “its good and its evil.” It was transmitted by al-Ajurri in al-Shari‘ah (p. 188), Abu al-Hasan al-Qazwini in a session from al-Amali (198/1), al-Lalaka’i in al-Sunnah (1/141/2), and Abu Sa‘d al-Janzarudhi in the tenth part of Ahadith Hisham ibn ‘Ammar (5/2), through several routes from him. I say: This is a good chain of transmission.

The second is from ‘Ikrimah ibn ‘Ammar, from Shaddad, from Ibn ‘Umar, in a report attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. It was transmitted by al-Lalaka’i.

The third is from Isma‘il ibn Abi al-Hakam al-Thaqafi, who said: Ibn Abi Hazim related to me from his father, from Sahl ibn Sa‘d al-Sa‘idi, in a report attributed to the Prophet, to the same effect. It was also transmitted by al-Lalaka’i and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (6/212/5900). Al-Haythami said (7/206):