The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked about the counter-charm, and he replied: “It is an act of Satan.”

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from ʿUqayl ibn Maʿqil, who is Ibn Munabbih al-Yamanī; he is unanimously deemed trustworthy. Thus, al-Ḥāfiẓ’s description of him as “truthful”—and his consequent restriction in al-Fatḥ (10/233) to classifying this chain as good—is an unjustifiable shortcoming, in my view.

It is possible that al-Ḥāfiẓ was influenced by two considerations. The first is that the hadith occurs in Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq (11/13/19762) as a report attributed to the Companion: “ʿUqayl ibn Maʿqil informed us, from Hammām—thus written—ibn Munabbih, who said: Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh was asked about the counter-charm, and he replied: ‘It is an act of Satan.’”

I say: This is how it appears there, attributed to the Companion; moreover, it says “Hammām ibn Munabbih” in place of “Wahb ibn Munabbih.” They were brothers, and ʿUqayl narrated from both of them. I believe this to be an error, just as I believe the attribution to the Companion to be an error. I think it originated with the narrator from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, namely Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbbād al-Dabarī, who transmitted a large portion of Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ from al-Muṣannaf—see al-Muṣannaf (10/379). He has been criticised; therefore, the like of him can never affect Aḥmad’s narration from ʿAbd al-Razzāq as a report attributed to the Prophet.

The other consideration is that al-Bayhaqī cast doubt upon its authenticity, saying immediately afterward: “It has also been narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as a mursal report, and that is more authentic.” He was referring to what Ibn Abī Shaybah narrated in al-Muṣannaf (8/29/3567), and al-Bazzār (3/393–394), through the route of Shuʿbah, from Abū Rajāʾ, who said: I asked al-Ḥasan about the counter-charm, and he related to me from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “It is an act of Satan.”