He married a woman from Quraysh but did not approach her, as fasting and prayer kept him occupied. This was mentioned to the Prophet ﷺ, who said, "Fast three days of every month."He replied, "I am able to do more than that."The Prophet ﷺ kept reducing the interval until he said to him, "Fast one day and break your fast the next."He also told him, "Recite the Quran once every month."He said, "I am able to do more than that."The Prophet ﷺ said, "Then recite it once every fifteen days."He said, "I am able to do more than that."He said, "Recite it once every seven days," until he finally said, "Recite it once every three days."The Prophet ﷺ said, "Every deed has a period of zeal, and every period of zeal has a period of slackening. Whoever's slackening returns him to my Sunnah has succeeded, and whoever's slackening leads him elsewhere has perished."
حدثنا محمد بن جعفر حدثنا شعبة عن حصين عن مجاهد
أنه تزوج امرأة من قريش فكان لا يأتيها كان يشغله الصوم والصلاة فذكر ذلك للنبي ﷺ فقال صم من كل شهر ثلاثة أيام قال إني أطيق أكثر من ذلك فما زال به حتى قال له صم يوما وأفطر يوما وقال له اقرإ القرآن في كل شهر قال إني أطيق أكثر من ذلك قال اقرأه في كل خمس عشرة قال إني أطيق أكثر من ذلك قال اقرأه في كل سبع حتى قال اقرأ في كل ثلاث وقال النبي ﷺ إن لكل عمل شرة ولكل شرة فترة فمن كانت شرته إلى سنتي فقد أفلح ومن كانت فترته إلى غير ذلك فقد هلك
Its chain of transmission is sahih. It appears abridged in 6477, and at greater length in 6539 and 6540, with similar wording. See also 6760–6762. The last portion of it, "every action has its ardor," and so on, was narrated by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, number 10 in our edition, by the route of Hashim bin Qasim from Shubah, with this same chain of transmission. In it we find, "so whoever's ardor leads toward my sunnah has succeeded, and whoever's ardor leads toward something else has perished."This is how the narration appears in Ibn Hibban, with the word "ardor" occurring in both places. The narration occurs the same way in this instance of the Musnad, in all three original manuscripts, "ardor" appearing in the first place, and "lull" occurring in the second place.Ibn Hibban gave this hadith the following heading in his book, "Mention of the establishment of success for one whose ardor leads toward the sunnah of the Chosen One ﷺ."I wrote, in my commentary on that hadith in Ibn Hibban, the following. All the narrations we have seen of this hadith, indeed of this same meaning, contain the wording, "so whoever's lull leads toward a sunnah has been rightly guided, and whoever's lull leads toward something else has perished," or wording conveying this same sense, namely that the intensity of a matter eventually settles into calm and a lull. The one striving exerts himself in worship, and may go to excess in intensity and strict adherence, and then his intensity settles down into a measured approach to the matter. He made clear ﷺ that the lull which follows such excess ought to be directed toward the sunnah, toward taking it up and not being lax in abandoning it, until one holds firmly to the path of guidance. But if the lull leads instead toward neglect and carelessness, then that is destruction.We have not found any narration like Ibn Hibban's narration here, in which anyone placed "ardor" with this meaning in the position of "lull." I had at first thought this was simply a copyist's slip in the wording of the hadith, had I not seen the heading Ibn Hibban gave to this hadith, as noted above, in which the word "ardor" appears with the script and dotting perfectly clear, vocalized with a kasrah beneath the shin. So the more likely view to me at that point was that the narration had indeed come down to Ibn Hibban in this form, and that he recorded it just as he received it.That is what I said there. Now here, in this narration, we find "ardor" in the first instance and "lull" in the second instance. I am now nearly certain that what appears in Ibn Hibban is the result of an error on the part of the narrators or the copyists, for the correct meaning is what is firmly established in all the other narrations.