2881 — “Whoever seeks treatment with something forbidden, Allah will not place healing in it.”

Abu Nuʿaym transmitted it in al-Tibb (folio 14/2), through Ibrahim ibn Ayyub, from al-Nuʿman, from ʿAbd al-Hakam, who said: I heard Ibn Sirin narrate from Abu Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said ... and he mentioned it.

I say: This chain of transmission is weak. Ibrahim ibn Ayyub is the Isfahani al-Farasani. Ibn Abi Hatim reported from his father: “I do not know him.” Abu al-ʿArab also included him in al-Duʿafaʾ, as cited in al-Mizan. Al-Nuʿman is Ibn ʿAbd al-Salam al-Isfahani, and he was a trustworthy jurist. But I have not identified his shaykh, ʿAbd al-Hakam.

However, Abu Nuʿaym cited for it a corroborating report through the narration of Yunus ibn Muhammad: Al-Hayyaj—or al-Sabbah ibn ʿAbd Allah—narrated to us; Ghalib al-Qattan narrated to us from Ibn Sirin, from Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “If anyone is afflicted by some ailment, let him not turn in alarm to anything Allah has forbidden, for Allah has not placed healing in anything He has forbidden.”

The narrators of this chain are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Sahihs, apart from al-Hayyaj—as this appeared to me from the photocopied manuscript—and I have not identified him. If, however, it is al-Sabbah ibn ʿAbd Allah, then he apparently is the al-ʿAbdi whose biography appears in al-Tahdhib, through Musa ibn Ismaʿil al-Tabudhaki’s narration from him. Ibn Maʿin said: “Trustworthy.” Abu Hatim said: “Unknown.” Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat. Yet I have not identified Ahmad ibn Ishaq, Abu Nuʿaym’s shaykh, who is below him in the chain; nor have I identified two narrators above him, because the image of their names is unclear.