al-Bukhari and others reported it.

Al-Bukhari likewise narrated it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (439) through several routes from Malik. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good and authentic hadith.”

One weak narrator differed from the aforementioned routes from Malik. Thus, al-Bukhari stated in al-Adab al-Mufrad (440): “Sa‘id ibn Dawud narrated to us: Malik narrated to us that Nafi‘ told him that Abdullah ibn Umar informed him that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said…” He then cited it with the same meaning as the hadith under discussion.

This Sa‘id was al-Zanbari. Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but he has objectionable narrations from Malik. It is said that some of his hadiths became confused, and Abdullah ibn Nafi‘ declared false his claim that he had heard directly from Malik.”

I say: This is one of his objectionable reports, for he differed from the majority regarding Malik’s teacher, making him Nafi‘, whereas he was in fact Abdullah ibn Dinar. Yet it has a basis in the abbreviated hadith of Nafi‘ from Ibn Umar, without the additional wording. Muslim (1/56) and Abu ‘Awanah (1/21–22) reported it.

It also has a corroborating report from Abu Dharr, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “No man accuses another man of sinful deviance, nor accuses him of disbelief, except that it rebounds upon him if the other is not as he said.” Al-Bukhari reported it in his Sahih (6045) and in al-Adab al-Mufrad (432); Muslim reported something similar, as did Abu ‘Awanah (1/23), Ahmad (5/181), and al-Bazzar (4/431/2034), who said: