- “Satan has despaired of being worshipped in this land of yours, but he has been content with the sins you deem insignificant.”
Imam Ahmad recorded it (2/368): Muʿawiyah narrated to us; Abu Ishaq narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said it.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs. Abu Ishaq is al-Fazari, and Muʿawiyah is Ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Muhallab al-Azdi, of Kufah and Baghdad. Through him, Abu Nuʿaym also recorded it in al-Hilyah (8/256), saying: “Authentic and firmly established; all the people narrated it from al-Aʿmash.”
I say: Among them was al-Thawri, as recorded by Abu Nuʿaym (7/86).
The hadith has a corroborating report from Ibn Masʿud, recorded by Abu Yaʿla in his Musnad with a weak chain of transmission. Ahmad also recorded it (1/402–403) in abridged form through another chain containing an unknown narrator, ʿAbd Rabbih ibn Abi Yazid. Thus, al-Haythami’s statement in al-Majmaʿ (10/189):
“Ahmad and al-Tabarani in al-Awsat reported it, and the narrators in both their chains are narrators of the Sahih, apart from ʿImran ibn Dawud al-Qattan, who has been declared trustworthy”
is mistaken, since al-Bukhari and Muslim did not narrate anything from this ʿAbd Rabbih. Likewise, al-Mundhiri’s statement in al-Targhib (3/145), “...with a good chain of transmission,” is not sound, due to the unknown status of the narrator mentioned above.
Another authentic hadith concerning sins deemed insignificant has previously appeared under no. 384.