I had thought that the correct reading was fanafaḥa, with an undotted hā’, for al-Qāmūs states: “nafaḥa al-ṭīb—conjugated like manaʿa—means: the perfume gave off its fragrance …” Then I saw in al-Nihāyah, under the root nafkh: “… from nafaḵhat al-rīḥ, when the wind comes suddenly,” and so I concluded that it was correct. And Allah knows best.

487 — “No one should punish with fire except the Lord of the Fire.”

Abu Dawud recorded it (2675): Abu Salih Mahbub ibn Musa narrated to us; Abu Ishaq al-Fazari informed us, from Abu Ishaq al-Shaybani, from Ibn Saʿd—though narrators other than Abu Salih identify him as al-Hasan ibn Saʿd—from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd Allah, from his father, who said:

“We were travelling with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, when he went away to relieve himself. We saw a bird with two chicks, so we took her chicks. The bird came and began fluttering her wings. Then the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, came and said: ‘Who has distressed this bird by taking her young? Return her young to her.’ He also saw an ant colony that we had burned and said: ‘Who burned this?’ We said, ‘We did.’ He then said the above.”

I say: Its chain of transmission is authentic. All of its narrators are trustworthy and were cited by both al-Bukhari and Muslim, apart from Mahbub ibn Musa, who is trustworthy. As for ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd Allah—namely, Ibn Masʿud—he heard from his father, according to the view we consider preponderant, as previously explained under hadith 197.

Al-Masʿudi also followed him in narrating it from al-Hasan ibn Saʿd through the same chain, but without the account of the ants. Ahmad recorded it (1/404).