- “Sin is what stirs unease in the hearts, and there is no glance in which Satan does not find an opportunity.”
Attributed to the Companion. Al-Bayhaqi narrated it in Shuʿab al-Iman (2/126/2), through Saʿid ibn Mansur: Sufyan narrated to us from Mansur, from Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Yazid, from his father, who said: ʿAbdullah said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said it. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the two Sahihs, apart from Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Yazid—the Kufan al-Nakhaʿi—who is unanimously deemed trustworthy. However, it has been criticized on the grounds that it is attributed to the Companion. Al-Mundhiri (3/65) said: “Al-Bayhaqi and others narrated it, and I know of no criticized narrator among its transmitters. However, it has been said that the correct version is attributed to the Companion.”
Al-Hafiz al-ʿIraqi said in Takhrij al-Ihyaʾ (1/32), after attributing it to al-Bayhaqi as a narration of Ibn Masʿud: “Al-ʿAdani also narrated it in his Musnad as attributed to him.” I say: Al-Tabarani likewise narrated it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (no. 8748): Muhammad ibn al-Nadr al-Azdi narrated to us: Muʿawiyah ibn ʿAmr informed us; Zaʾidah informed us from Mansur, with the report attributed to the Companion. Its wording is: “Indeed, sin is what stirs unease in the hearts; so whatever causes unease in the heart of any one of you, let him leave it.” He then narrated it through the same chain as attributed to the Companion, except that he put al-Aʿmash in place of Zaʾidah. Its wording is that of the heading, except that the order is reversed.
I say: This too is an authentic chain of transmission, for Muhammad ibn al-Nadr al-Azdi is Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Nadr al-Azdi. ʿAbdullah ibn Ahmad and Muhammad ibn ʿAbdus declared him trustworthy, as mentioned in his biographical entry in al-Tarikh (1/364), and the two narrators above him are trustworthy narrators of the two Sahihs,