And this Ibn Abi Raja was Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ubayd Allah al-Tarsusi. Al-Nasa’i deemed him reliable, and on one occasion said: “There is no harm in him.”

I say: An addition from someone of his standing would be accepted, were it not that he contradicted all those who narrated it from Waki‘—foremost among them Imam Ahmad, as mentioned above—for they did not mention it. Thus, the addition is anomalous in its chain of transmission and rejected in its content: first, because it contradicts the correct meaning of the verse; and second, because it reinforces the difficulty. And Allah knows best.

3053—“There will surely be people who wish they had committed more evil deeds.” They said, “Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Those whose evil deeds Allah has changed into good deeds.”

Al-Hakim recorded it (4/252) through the route of al-Fadl ibn Musa, from Abu al-‘Anbas, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said … and he mentioned it. Al-Hakim said:

“This Abu al-‘Anbas is Sa‘id ibn Kathir, and its chain of transmission is authentic.”

Al-Dhahabi concurred with him, and it is as they said. Another hadith of Sa‘id and his father has previously appeared under no. 3011, and they likewise deemed it authentic. Kathir was Ibn ‘Ubayd al-Taymi, the client of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Aisha’s foster-brother. A number of reliable narrators reported from him, and Ibn Hibban included him in The Reliable Narrators; thus, he was truthful. Ibn al-Qayyim did not know him, nor did he know his son Sa‘id, for he cited the hadith in The Path of the Two Migrations (p. 248) through the route of Abu Hafs al-Mustamli, from Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Abi Razmah: al-Fadl ibn Musa al-Qutay‘i narrated it to us through this chain. He then said:

“A report such as this is not established. Who is Abu al-‘Anbas? And who is his father?!”