whereupon Allah said: “O son of Adam, what prompted you to do what you did?” He replied: “My Lord, it was out of fear of You.” In another chain: “Out of awe of You, though You know best.” He said: “So He forgave him on account of it, though he had never done any good at all except affirming Allah’s oneness.”

Ahmad recorded it (2/304): Abu Kamil narrated to us; Hammad narrated to us, from Thabit, from Abu Rafi‘, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. And more than one narrator reported from al-Hasan and Ibn Sirin, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, continuous through Abu Hurayrah. Its narrators are trustworthy narrators of Muslim, apart from Abu Kamil, who was Muzaffar ibn Mudrik al-Khurasani; he was a reliable hadith master by consensus.

Hammad is Ibn Salamah, and he has two other chains of transmission for this hadith:

The first is from ‘Asim ibn Bahdalah, from Abu Wa’il, from ‘Abdullah ibn Wa’il, from ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, may Allah be pleased with him:

“A man had never done any good at all except affirming Allah’s oneness...” the hadith.

Ahmad recorded it (1/398) in this form as a report attributed to the Companion (1). Yet it has the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet, as is evident. It appears that Ahmad, may Allah have mercy on him, indicated this by following it with its transmission through the chain of Hammad, from Thabit, from Abu Rafi‘, from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said something similar.

The other is from Abu Qaz‘ah, from Hakim ibn Mu‘awiyah, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Indeed, there was a man among those before you upon whom Allah had lavished wealth and children, until”