al-‘Uluww (93/25), and Zilal al-Jannah (1/276/622). This hadith is one of six hadiths in Muslim transmitted through this narration. This fact alone should have been enough to deter these ignorant people from declaring the hadith under discussion weak on account of this Ja‘far—if only they knew! How then, when there are scores of hadiths narrated by this Ja‘far whose authenticity the hadith masters, both early and later, have agreed upon—such as al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim, al-Dhahabi, al-‘Asqalani, and others? They are well known and dispersed throughout the various chapters of the books of the Sunnah.

For this reason, al-Dhahabi said in his biography of Ja‘far in al-Mughni:

“Truthful, righteous, trustworthy. Yahya al-Qattan and others declared him weak. He had Shiite leanings, and some of his reports are objectionable.”

And in al-Kashif, he said:

“Trustworthy; there is some reservation concerning him, despite his extensive learning.”

For this reason, he included him in his book Knowledge of Narrators Criticized in Ways That Do Not Warrant Rejection (pp. 81–82), in which he mentioned much the same as what has preceded.

Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib:

“Truthful and ascetic, but he had Shiite leanings.”

In summary, the man is truthful and a reliable authority unless his error becomes apparent, like the other trustworthy narrators in whom there is some degree of weakness. Thus, their declaring the hadith weak because of him suggests that, out of their profound ignorance, they imagine that every criticism of a narrator is an accepted disparagement. This is something that not even a beginner in this discipline would accept. And Allah is the One whose help is sought. *

3337—(Say—and in another narration: You should say—: “O Allah, You are Most Pardoning and love to pardon, so pardon me.”)

Recorded by al-Tirmidhi (2580) and al-Nasa’i in The Deeds of the Day and Night (872–875),