Whoever repents a year before his death, his repentance is accepted. Whoever repents a month before his death, his repentance is accepted. He continued, until he said, "A day," then he said, "An hour," then he said, "The time between two milkings of a camel."The man asked, "What do you think if he was a polytheist who then embraced Islam?"He replied, "I am only telling you what I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say."
حدثنا عفان حدثنا شعبة قال إبراهيم بن ميمون أخبرني قال سمعت رجلا من بني الحارث قال سمعت رجلا منا يقال له أيوب قال سمعت
من تاب قبل موته عاما تيب عليه ومن تاب قبل موته بشهر تيب عليه حتى قال يوما حتى قال ساعة حتى قال فواقا قال قال الرجل أرأيت إن كان مشركا أسلم قال إنما أحدثكم كما سمعت من رسول الله ﷺ يقول
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Its isnad is daif, because of the anonymity of the man from Banu Harith, who narrates it from the tabi'i.Ibrahim bin Maymun is a Kufan who is trustworthy. Nasai deemed him trustworthy, and Ibn Hibban mentioned him in Thiqat, as noted in Tahdhib. He is not the same as Ibrahim bin Maymun Abu Ishaq, the freedman of the family of Samura. Bukhari distinguished between the two in Kabir, giving a biography for the narrator here, from whom Shuba narrated, at 1/1/324, number 1014, and giving a biography for the other at 1/1/325-326, number 1018. Likewise, al-Hafiz distinguished between them in Tajil, pages 21-22, and he also distinguished between them in the biography of Ayub the tabi'i, the narrator of this hadith, page 48.Ayub was a tabi'i whose lineage is not known. Bukhari gave his biography in Kabir 1/1/427, saying, "Ayub heard from Abdullah bin Amr. Hafs bin Amr told us this, from Shuba, from Ibrahim bin Maymun, who heard a man from Banu Harith say that he heard a man among us called Ayub, from Abdullah bin Amr, 'Whoever repents an hour before his death, it will be accepted from him. I am telling you what I heard from the Prophet ﷺ.'" This is a brief reference from Bukhari to this hadith, in keeping with his careful practice in his history.Ibn Hibban gave his biography in Thiqat, page 138, saying, "Ayub, a shaykh who narrates from Abdullah bin Amr, 'Whoever repents an hour before his death, it will be accepted from him.' I consider him to be Ayub bin Farqad. His hadith is narrated from Shuba, from Ibrahim bin Maymun, from a man from Banu Harith." Al-Hafiz critiqued this in Tajil, saying, "I have not found any mention of Ayub bin Farqad, either with him or with anyone else." And this is as he said.Haythami mentioned this hadith in Majma al-Zawaid 10:197, saying, "Ahmad narrated it, and it contains a narrator who is not named, but the rest of its narrators are trustworthy."Tayalisi narrated it, number 2284, from Shuba, in similar wording, but it includes the narrator's objection. He said, "So I said to him, 'Allah, Mighty and Sublime, only said, "Repentance with Allah is only for those who do evil in ignorance" [Nisa 4:17],' the rest of the verse." Ibn Kathir quoted this in his tafsir 2:279, from Tayalisi, then said, "This is how Abu Dawud Tayalisi, Abu Amr Hawdi, and Abu Amir Aqadi narrated it, from Shuba." Its isnad appears incomplete in the copy of Tayalisi, and mistaken in the copy of Ibn Kathir, where the name of the companion appears as Ibn Umar. All of this is an error on the part of the copyists.Tabari narrated it in his tafsir 4:2016, from Muhammad bin Muthanna, from Muhammad bin Jafar, from Shuba, with this same isnad, correctly, and he mentioned the verse in it. Suyuti attributed it in Durr Manthur 2:131 also to Ibn Abu Hatim and Bayhaqi in Shuab. See what preceded in the Musnad of Abdullah bin Umar bin Khattab, number 6408.As for his saying, "until he said, 'a fawaq,'" he means the duration of a fawaq of a she-camel. Al-fawaq, with the fa pronounced with either damma or fatha and a light unstressed waw, is the time between two milkings, when you release your hand. It is also said to mean the moment when the milker grips the udder and then releases it.