This is the causative sense, “to make someone hear”; whereas what he cited is the quite different expression, “to publicize someone.” What a vast difference there is between them!
- Moreover, the “denunciation” mentioned in his explanation is merely an allusion to exposing a Jew’s or Christian’s faults and publicizing them. But does this warrant the entry into the Fire mentioned in the hadith? May Allah guide you!
It would have been enough for that commentator to reflect upon the chapter heading which the author, Ibn Hibban, gave to the hadith. He would then have seen, firstly, the error in his interpretation of it, and secondly, the error in the heading based on a hadith that had been abridged in a seriously misleading manner. As stated earlier, Ibn Hibban said:
“...for one who makes the People of the Book hear what they dislike.”
He did not say: “One who publicizes the People of the Book.”
On this occasion, I should mention that one of the brethren—may Allah reward him well—informed me that al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi had preceded me in drawing attention to the error made by Ibn Hibban. This is in his book Fath al-Mughith (2/221), under the section entitled “Restricting a narration to part of a hadith.” He said:
“This Imam, Abu Hatim Ibn Hibban—and his standing needs no further commendation—gave in his Sahih the heading: ‘The incurrence of entry into the Fire for one who makes the People of the Book hear what they dislike.’ Under it, he cited the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ashari with the wording: ‘Whoever hears a Jew or a Christian will enter the Fire.’ Others followed him and used it as evidence that it is forbidden to backbite a dhimmi (a non-Muslim under Muslim protection). All of this is mistaken. The wording of the hadith is: ‘Whoever among this community, whether Jew or Christian, hears of me and does not believe in me will enter the Fire.’”
If it is asked: Was this seriously misleading abridgment made by Ibn Hibban, or by one of his narrators?