Ahmad 7196

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Muslim narrated it, 1:48, slightly abridged, through the route of Abu Khalid Ahmar from Hisham, who is Ibn Hassan, with this same chain. Bukhari also narrated it, 13:391, likewise abridged, through the route of Abu Zinad from Araj from Abu Hurairah. Muslim likewise narrated it, 1:47, through this same route. However, in Araj's version the beginning reads, "Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said, 'If My servant intends a bad deed, do not record it against him,'" and so on with the same meaning, the wording being Muslim's. Muslim also narrated it, 1:47-48, at length and in abridged form, through two other routes from Abu Hurairah. Suyuti, in Durr Manthur, 3:65, quoted the beginning of this hadith with wording close to the version in the Musnad here, and attributed it to Ibn Mardawayh alone. Something of similar meaning has already passed, at length and abridged, from the hadith of Ibn Abbas, at 2001, 2519, 2828, 3402.As for the phrase "up to seven hundred, and seven times its like," the words "seven times its like" are not mentioned in Muslim's version. They are, however, present in the passage that Suyuti quoted. They are also present in a hadith of Abu Dharr, which Haythami quoted in Majma al-Zawaid, 10:145. It is close in meaning to this hadith of Abu Hurairah, and he said, "Tabarani narrated it in al-Saghir, and its narrators are trustworthy." The original hadith of Abu Dharr is in Sahih Muslim, 2:309, with different wording.As for the phrase at its end, "and if he does not do it, it is not recorded against him," this is how it stands in the manuscript sources, though it repeats in meaning what came before it. The word "tuktabu" (is recorded), with a taa at its start, is found in K and M, while in H it reads "yuktabu." What is in the two manuscripts is better and more correct.