Qabīṣah narrated to us: Sufyān narrated it to us with the same wording, except that he said, “and your bodies,” in place of “and your wealth.” Abū Nuʿaym said: “It is singular among al-Thawrī’s narrations from Jaʿfar, and I know of no one besides Qabīṣah who narrated it from him.”

I say: Another narrator corroborated him. Aḥmad (2/285) said: “Muḥammad ibn Bakr al-Bursānī narrated to us: Jaʿfar”—meaning Ibn Burqān—“narrated it to us with the same wording.”

It also has another chain from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording. It says, “your bodies,” in place of “your wealth,” and mentions the latter addition in place of “and your deeds.” Muslim transmitted it through Abū Saʿīd, the freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir ibn Kurayz, who said: “I heard Abū Hurayrah say,” and then cited it. The first addition is found in Muslim.

It also has an authentic corroborating report with a double break. Ibn al-Mubārak said in al-Zuhd (1544): “Al-Awzāʿī informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,’” and then cited it.

Important note: Al-Bayhaqī said after the hadith: “This is the authentic, preserved version recognized among the hadith masters. As for the wording that has become current on the tongues of a number of scholars and others—‘Indeed, Allah does not look at your outward forms or your deeds; rather, He looks at your hearts’—we have not received it through any route that establishes anything like it. It contradicts what is found in the authentic hadith. What is established in the narration is more deserving of being followed by us and by all Muslims, especially by one who has become a leading authority in knowledge and is taken as an example. With Allah lies success.”

I say: It appears that this error, adopted by those scholars to whom al-Bayhaqī referred, continued until the time of Imam al-Nawawī, for the hadith occurs in his Riyāḍ (no.