Both Hammad and Ibn Abi Hamzah are weak.
- As for the hadith of al-Nu‘man, its wording is: “Supplication is worship.” He then recited: “Your Lord says: ‘Call upon Me, and I will answer you. Indeed, those who are too proud to worship Me will enter Hell humbled.’” It was related by the compilers of the Sunan and others, and was authenticated by Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim, al-Dhahabi, and others. It has been documented in Ahkam al-Jana’iz (p. 246, al-Ma‘arif edition), Sahih Abi Dawud (1329), and al-Rawd al-Nadir (888).
There can be no doubt that regarding oneself too proudly to worship and supplicate Him, Exalted is He, entails Allah’s anger toward one who does not supplicate Him. Thus, this hadith provides strong corroboration for the meaning, though not the wording, of the hadith under discussion.
Some ignorant Sufis have overlooked these hadiths—or feigned ignorance of them—claiming that supplicating Allah is bad etiquette before Allah. They were influenced in this by the Israelite report: “His knowledge of my state makes asking Him unnecessary!” They failed to understand that a servant’s supplication to his Lord, Exalted is He, is not meant to inform Him, Glorified and Exalted is He, of his need—for He “knows what is secret and what is even more hidden”—but rather to manifest his servitude to Him, his need of Him, and his poverty before Him, as explained previously in volume one of al-Da‘ifah, no. 22.
2655 — “Whoever pays the zakah on his wealth willingly, seeking Allah’s Countenance and the abode of the Hereafter, conceals none of his wealth, establishes the prayer, and pays the zakah; then, if he is wrongfully attacked, takes up his weapon and fights, and is killed, he is a martyr.”
Ibn Khuzaymah related it in his Sahih (2336) through Zakariyya ibn Yahya ibn Aban.