2984 — “There is no one among the descendants of Adam who has not sinned, or contemplated a sin, except John son of Zechariah.”

It is narrated from Abdullah ibn Abbas; Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As, or from his father, Amr; Abu Hurayrah; al-Hasan al-Basri in mursal form; and Yahya ibn Ja‘dah in mursal form.

1. As for the hadith of Ibn Abbas, it has two routes from him. The first is from Hammad ibn Salamah, who said: “Ali ibn Zayd informed us, from Yusuf ibn Mihran, from him, attributing it to the Prophet.” It was reported by al-Hakim (2/591), al-Bayhaqi (10/186), Ibn Abi Shaybah in al-Musannaf (11/562), Ahmad (1/254, 292, 295, 301, and 320), Abu Ya‘la (4/418/2544), al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (12/216/12933), and Ibn Asakir in Tarikh Dimashq (18/93).

I say: This chain of transmission is weak. Al-Haythami explained this in Majma‘ al-Zawa’id, saying (8/209): “It was reported by Ahmad, Abu Ya‘la, al-Bazzar, and al-Tabarani. Its chain contains Ali ibn Zayd, whom the majority declared weak, though he was also deemed reliable; and the rest of Ahmad’s narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.”

I say: That is what he said. Al-Nawawi was asked about this hadith: “Is it authentic, and which of the authors of the books narrated it?” He replied: “This is a weak hadith, and it is not permissible to cite it as evidence. Abu Ya‘la reported it in his Musnad, from Zuhayr, from Affan, from Hammad ibn Salamah… This chain is weak, because Ali ibn”