This is blameworthy figurative reinterpretation, contrary to the creed of the righteous early generations. The proper approach is to affirm such attributes according to their apparent meaning, in a manner befitting Allah’s greatness and majesty, as in His saying, Exalted is He: “There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” The One who grants success is Allah alone.

3622—“The price of a dog is vile, the earnings of a prostitute are vile, and the earnings of a cupper are vile.”

It was narrated by Muslim (5/35), Abū Dāwūd (3421), al-Tirmidhī (1275), al-Nasāʾī (7/190), Ibn Ḥibbān (5152 and 5153), al-Ḥākim (2/42), Ibn Abī Shaybah (6/246 and 270), al-Dārimī (2/272), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār (4/129) and Mushkil al-Āthār (4650), al-Bayhaqī (9/336–337), al-Ṭayālisī (966), Aḥmad (3/464–465 and 4/141), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (4258–4260), and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhīd (2/266), through various routes from al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd, from Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, who reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said it.

Al-Ḥākim said:

“It is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, although they did not record it.”

Al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

I say: This was an error on both their parts—may Allah have mercy on them—for the hadith is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, as you can see.

Muslim (5/35), al-Nasāʾī (7/190), al-Bayhaqī (9/337), Aḥmad (4/140), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (4263), and others also narrated it through various routes from al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd, from Rāfiʿ, as a Prophetic report, with the wording: