I say: Among the outrages committed by al-Haddam against the Sunnah is his declaring this hadith weak in his commentary on Ighathat al-Lahfan, prefacing his citation of its sources by saying (1/56): “Weak; perhaps it is a statement of one of the early generations!” One may say to him: Reserve “perhaps” for that star! For most of its chains are traced back to the Prophet, and the first of them is intrinsically good; the hadith of Jabir is similar. But the man is afflicted with scholarly aberration!

2798 — “Avoid wine, for it is the key to every evil.”

Al-Hakim recorded it (4/145), and al-Bayhaqi, through him, in Shuʿab al-Iman (2/150/2), by way of Nuʿaym ibn Hammad: ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Muhammad al-Darawardi narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Abi ʿAmr, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said this. Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: Nuʿaym ibn Hammad was himself listed by al-Dhahabi in al-Duʿafaʾ wa al-Matrukin, where he said: “Ahmad and a group declared him trustworthy, while al-Nasaʾi and others said: ‘He is not trustworthy.’ Al-Azdi said: ‘They said that he used to fabricate hadith.’ Abu Dawud said: ‘He has around twenty hadith that have no basis.’ And al-Daraqutni said: ‘He made many errors.’”

As for al-Munawi’s statement that he was among the narrators of the two Sahih collections, it is mistaken, for al-Bukhari narrated from him only alongside another narrator, while Muslim narrated from him in the Introduction. He also declared it defective on the grounds that it contains Muhammad ibn Ishaq. This too is an error, for Ibn Ishaq does not occur in this chain of transmission, as you can see.