2977 — “Remove from yourself the hair of disbelief and be circumcised.” He said this to a man who embraced Islam.

It was narrated by ʿAbd al-Razzāq in al-Muṣannaf (6/10/9835), and through him by Aḥmad (3/415) and Abū Dāwūd (356); through the latter, by al-Bayhaqī (1/172); and by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (22/395–396). All of them narrated through ʿAbd al-Razzāq, who said: Ibn Jurayj informed us, saying: I was informed, from ʿUthaym ibn Kulayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that he came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “I have embraced Islam.” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to him: “Remove from yourself the hair of disbelief”—that is, shave it off. He said: Another person informed me from him that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to another man—then he mentioned the same report.

I say: This is an unknown chain of transmission, because Ibn Jurayj’s unnamed shaykh is unknown, as are ʿUthaym and those above him. There is also a discrepancy in its chain, which I have mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (382).

I wish to point out here that Ibn Ḥibbān included this ʿUthaym in his book al-Thiqāt (7/303), despite stating that Ibn Jurayj narrated from him through a man—thereby referring to this very narration. This conflicts with some of the conditions he stipulated for the narrators in this book in its introduction (1/11–13), as well as the conditions for the narrators of the hadiths in his book al-Ṣaḥīḥ, which he likewise mentioned in its introduction (1/83–84). So refer to them if you wish.

Nevertheless, I consider the wording of this hadith sound, following Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, as I mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd, because of the hadith of Qatādah Abū Hishām, who said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he said to me: ‘O Qatādah, wash yourself with water and lote-tree leaves, and shave off the hair of disbelief.’” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would instruct whoever embraced Islam to be circumcised, even if he were eighty years old. I said there: