2991 — “Glory be to Allah! They felt no shame before Allah, nor did they conceal themselves from the Messenger of Allah.” He said this regarding a group who were naked.

Aḥmad and his son ʿAbd Allah (4/191), Abū Yaʿlā (3/109–110), and al-Bazzār (2/429–430) recorded it through two routes from Sulaymān ibn Ziyād al-Ḥaḍramī, who related that ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Juzʾ al-Zubaydī narrated to him that he and a companion passed by Ayman, where a group of Quraysh had untied their waist-wraps and made them into whips with which they were lashing one another, naked. ʿAbd Allah said: When we passed by them, they said, “These are priests, so leave them alone.” Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came out to them. When they saw him, they scattered. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, returned in anger until he entered his chamber. I was behind the chamber, and I heard him say the above. Umm Ayman, who was with him, said, “Seek forgiveness for them, O Messenger of Allah!” ʿAbd Allah said: By Allah, he did not seek forgiveness for them.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, and its narrators are trustworthy. Al-Haythamī said (8/27): “It was recorded by Aḥmad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Ṭabarānī; and one of al-Ṭabarānī’s two chains consists of trustworthy narrators.”

I say: He failed to attribute it to ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad, and the annotator of Musnad Abū Yaʿlā, as well as the annotator of al-Maqṣad al-ʿAlī (3/50), followed him in this, even though both attributed it to Aḥmad, citing the very same volume and page. Yet they did not notice what appears at the end of the hadith: “ʿAbd Allah said: I myself heard it from Hārūn.” I say: Hārūn was Aḥmad’s teacher in this chain. He was Hārūn ibn Maʿrūf al-Marwazī, a trustworthy narrator whose reports are found in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections.