“...except for Ahmad ibn Rushdayn,” for he is not among the narrators of the Sahih; rather, he is one of al-Tabarani’s weak shaykhs. Al-Haythami frequently makes such misleading generalizations, so bear this in mind, and you will, Allah willing, be spared error.
- “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not wrong him or abandon him. Whoever attends to his brother’s need, Allah will attend to his need. Whoever relieves a Muslim of a hardship, Allah will relieve him of one of the hardships of the Day of Resurrection. Whoever conceals a Muslim’s faults, Allah will conceal his faults on the Day of Resurrection.”
Recorded by al-Bukhari (2/98), Abu Dawud (4893), al-Tirmidhi (1/268), and Ahmad (2/91), through al-Layth, from ‘Uqayl, from Ibn Shihab, who said that Salim informed him that ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar informed him that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this. The wording is that of al-Bukhari. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, authentic hadith.”
Its opening sentence is also recorded by Muslim (8/10–11) and al-Tirmidhi (1/350), who graded it good, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah. Abu Dawud also recorded it (4918), though with the wording: “The believer is the brother of the believer.” He also recorded it (3356) on the authority of Suwayd ibn Hanzalah with the first wording; likewise al-Tirmidhi (2/183) and others, on the authority of ‘Amr ibn al-Ahwas; and Ahmad (5/24/71), on the authority of a man from Banu Sulayt.
Note: Al-Mundhiri cited this hadith in al-Targhib only through the narrations of Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi from Ibn ‘Umar. This is a grave shortcoming, since he overlooked the fact that it is in Sahih al-Bukhari. More serious still is that al-Suyuti cited its opening sentence through Abu Dawud’s narration from Suwayd ibn Hanzalah, overlooking the fact that it is recorded by the two Shaykhs and by the others we have mentioned, on the authority of a number of the Prophet’s Companions, peace and blessings be upon him. This therefore called for clarification.