2500 — “Whenever Allah afflicts a servant with a trial while he persists in a course that He dislikes, Allah makes that trial an expiation and a purification for him, so long as he does not ascribe the affliction that has befallen him to anyone besides Allah, or call upon anyone besides Allah to remove it.”

Ibn Abi al-Dunya narrated it in al-Kaffarat (69/2): Ya‘qub ibn ‘Ubayd narrated to us; Hisham ibn ‘Ammar informed us; Yahya ibn Hamzah informed us; al-Hakam ibn ‘Abdullah informed us that he heard al-Muttalib ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Hantab al-Makhzumi relate that he heard Abu Hurayrah relate, saying:

“I visited Umm ‘Abdullah bint Abi Dhubab while she was ill, and she said: ‘O Abu Hurayrah, I visited Umm Salamah while she was ill. She saw a sore on my hand and said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say”—and then she cited the hadith.’”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, Allah willing. Its narrators are trustworthy and, with the exception of three, are among al-Bukhari’s narrators, although Hisham ibn ‘Ammar has been judged weak. The first is Umm ‘Abdullah bint Abi Dhubab: I have not found anyone who wrote her biography. In the entry for “Dhubab” in al-Tabsir (2/578), al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar mentioned a number of people, but she was not among them. One of them was Sa‘d ibn Abi Dhubab, a Companion, who has a hadith in Musnad Ahmad (4/79) and elsewhere. It therefore appears that she was his sister and that she too was a Companion. This is supported by Abu Hurayrah’s narration from her. And Allah knows best.

The second is al-Hakam ibn ‘Abdullah, who apparently was the son of al-Muttalib ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Hantab al-Makhzumi, his teacher in this chain; he was identified by the name of his nearest grandfather. Al-Dhahabi said: “Al-Daraqutni said: ‘His reports may be considered for corroboration.’ Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm said: ‘His status is unknown.’” In Lisan al-Mizan, he added: “A number of narrators transmitted from him, including his brother ‘Abd al-‘Aziz and Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah al-Shu‘aythi,”