“His name was Ziyād; he was a trustworthy Kūfan.”
Others likewise declared him trustworthy.
- As for the mursal report of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Abū ʿAmr ibn Nujayd narrated it: Abū Muslim informed us; al-Anṣārī narrated to us; Ashʿath narrated to us from him:
A man lost a she-camel and brought a claim concerning it against another man. He brought him before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “This man took my she-camel.” The man replied, “No, by Allah, besides whom there is no deity, I did not take it.” He said, “You did take it; return it to him.” So he returned it to him. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then said:
“You have been forgiven because of your sincerity.”
Al-Bayhaqī recorded it through several routes from Abū ʿAmr ibn Nujayd, whom I have not presently identified (1). Those above him in the chain are trustworthy:
Abū Muslim—namely, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim al-Kajjī—was a trustworthy ḥadīth master, whose biography appears in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ and Tārīkh Baghdād.
Al-Anṣārī was Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muthannā, one of the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.
Ashʿath was Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Ḥumrānī; he was a trustworthy jurist.
A point of benefit:
Al-Bayhaqī said after this hadith of al-Ḥasan:
“This is interrupted. If it is sound in its original form, then its purpose is to show that, however grave a sin may be, it does not necessitate Hellfire as long as one’s creed is sound and one is among those for whom forgiveness has been decreed beforehand,”