2607 — “Do not deem provision slow in coming, for no servant will die until he has received the last portion of provision allotted to him. So seek it in a fitting manner: by taking what is lawful and leaving what is forbidden.”

It was recorded by Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī in his Mashyakhah (folio 149/1—Majmūʿ 33), Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1084 and 1085—Mawārid), al-Ḥākim (2/4), and al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (5/264), through several routes from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, who said: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.

Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the conditions of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.” Al-Dhahabī concurred. I say: It is as they both said, were it not for the concern that Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl may have become confused in his later years. However, this concern does not arise here, since the hadith has come through another route.

Ibn Mājah (2144), al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī also recorded it through two routes from Ibn Jurayj, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, with the wording: “Indeed, none of you will die until he has received his provision in full. Therefore, do not deem provision slow in coming. Fear Allah, O people, and seek it in a fitting manner: take what is lawful and leave what is forbidden.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the conditions of Muslim.” Al-Dhahabī concurred. I say: It is as they both said, for we are safe from the concealment in transmission of Abū al-Zubayr and his companion, since both explicitly stated their transmission in the narration of Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad: Ibn Jurayj informed us: Abū al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh relate it. Al-Silafī recorded it in al-Ṭuyūriyyāt, and al-Bayhaqī cited it in suspended form.