Third: His expression, “its import …,” is unacademic, since it is equivalent to saying, “its meaning.” The correct expression would be, “its wording,” as is plainly evident to anyone but an ignorant fool.

Fourth: This wording occurs in a very abbreviated version narrated by Muslim. He—or the “group of scholars,” if he is telling the truth—should therefore have mentioned Muslim’s other version, which I relied upon for the hadith under discussion, since it is more complete, as you can see.

Fifth: He—or they!—should have pointed out that the text of the hadith in Riyad contains another discrepancy with that found in Muslim: it has, “then let him not make a claim against you [plural],” whereas Riyad has, “let him not make a claim against you [singular]”! This insinuating fault-finder reminded me of the popular proverb: Whoever lives in a glass house should not throw stones at others!

Fourth: In al-Targhib (1/141), al-Mundhiri also attributed the hadith to Abu Dawud, which is an error and therefore required clarification.

2891 — “Any man who says to his brother, ‘O disbeliever!’ then one of the two bears it: if he is as he said, then so be it; otherwise, it returns upon him.” In one narration: “upon the other.”

Muslim (1/57), Abu Awanah (1/23), Ibn Hibban (1/234/250), and Ahmad (2/44) reported it through several routes from Abdullah ibn Dinar, who heard Ibn Umar say: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this. Al-Bukhari (6104), Abu Awanah, Ibn Hibban (249), al-Tirmidhi (7/293/2639), and Ahmad (2/18, 47, 60, 112, and 113) also reported it through other routes from Ibn Dinar, with the same wording but without the words, “if he is …,” and so on. The same wording is found in Malik’s Muwaṭṭaʾ (3/148), and through him