to what has been said about him above, since it plainly indicates that they were unfamiliar with his hadiths and had not examined them closely. This is the statement of Imam al-ʿIjli in Tarikh al-Thiqat (119/290):
“He was a Kufan, trustworthy, and learned.”
Al-Bukhari made no comment about him in al-Tarikh (1/2/393).
Therefore, I consider the hadith to be at least good, for the narrators above him are trustworthy narrators of Muslim. This is especially so since it has come by way of Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam, from Habib ibn ʿUbayd, that Habib ibn Maslamah was brought a man who had unlawfully taken from the war booty before its distribution. He tied him beside the mosque and ordered his belongings to be burned. Then, after he had prayed, he stood before the people, praised and extolled Allah, and mentioned the misappropriation of war booty and what Allah had revealed concerning it. Thereupon, ʿAwf ibn Malik stood and said:
“O people, beware of sins for which there is no expiation. A man may engage in ribā and then repent, and Allah accepts his repentance. Yet Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘It is not for a prophet to misappropriate war booty; and whoever misappropriates it will bring what he misappropriated on the Day of Resurrection.’ And Allah will raise the consumer of ribā on the Day of Resurrection insane and choking.”
Al-Tabarani also recorded it (no. 109) through an authentic chain to Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam. He was weak and became confused in his later years, but this does not prevent it from being cited as corroborative evidence, for he was among the devout worshippers and one of the repositories of knowledge. Ibn ʿAdi said:
“His hadiths are sound, but he is not relied upon as proof.”
As for what Husayn ibn Mukhariq narrated from Hamzah al-Zayyat, from Aban, from Anas, attributing it to the Prophet in the wording:
“The consumer of ribā will come on the Day of Resurrection deranged, dragging one side of his body.” Then he recited: “Those who consume ribā will not stand except as one driven to madness by Satan’s touch stands.”
Al-Asbahani recorded it in al-Targhib (2/574/1374), and al-Mundhiri indicated in