Ahmad 7279

Its chain of transmission is sahih. Sufyan here is Ibn Uyayna. Muslim narrated this hadith, 1:407, from Ibn Abu Umar from Sufyan, with the question and its cause detailed in full. He said, I said to Zuhri, "Abu Bakr, what is this hadith, 'The worst food is the food of the rich'?" He laughed and said, "It does not mean the worst food is the food of the rich." Sufyan said, "My father was rich, so this hadith alarmed me when I heard it, and I asked Zuhri about it." He said, "Abdul-Rahman Araj told me that he heard Abu Hurairah say, 'The worst food is the food of a wedding feast...'"The apparent wording here makes it seem attributed only to Abu Hurairah as a stopped report, as in this narration in the Musnad. But in reality it is a raised report, as will be explained. Malik likewise narrated it in Muwatta, 546, from Ibn Shihab from Araj from Abu Hurairah, with stopped wording, without mentioning Sufyan's story about the question. Bukhari, 211-212, and Muslim, 1:407, also narrated it through Malik's route, and it will come again in the Musnad repeatedly.Munziri said in Targhib wal-Tarhib, 3:126, "Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Nasai, and Ibn Majah narrated it as stopped on Abu Hurairah, and Muslim also narrated it raised to the Prophet ﷺ."Al-Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari, 9:212, "The beginning of this hadith is stopped, but its ending requires that it be raised. Ibn Battal mentioned this," meaning by its ending, "for he has disobeyed Allah and His Messenger." He said, "Similar to this is the hadith of Abu Shatha, that Abu Hurairah saw a man leaving the masjid after the adhan and said, 'This one has disobeyed Abu Qasim.'" He said, "Something like this cannot be mere personal opinion, and this is why the imams included it in their musnads." End of quote.Ibn Abdul-Barr mentioned that most of Malik's narrators did not explicitly state that it was raised, though Rawh bin Qasim reported it from Malik, with his chain, saying, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said..." End of quote. Daraqutni likewise extracted it in Ghara'ib Malik, through the route of Ismail bin Muslama bin Qanab from Malik.Muslim [1:407] also extracted it through the narration of Maamar and Sufyan bin Uyayna from Zuhri, Malik's teacher, as Malik stated, and through the narration of Abu Zinad from Araj as well. The Araj who is Zuhri's teacher in this is Abdul-Rahman, as occurs in Sufyan's narration, where he said, "I asked Zuhri, and he said, 'Abdul-Rahman Araj told me that he heard Abu Hurairah,'" and he related it.Sufyan also has another teacher for this, with another chain going back to Abu Hurairah, in which he explicitly states that it is raised to the Prophet. Muslim also extracted this, 1:407, through the route of Sufyan, "I heard Ziyad bin Saad say, I heard Thabit Araj narrate from Abu Hurairah, that the Prophet ﷺ said," and he related something similar.Abu Shaykh likewise extracted it, through the route of Muhammad bin Sirin from Abu Hurairah, explicitly raised.As for his statement, "he is invited to it," in the manuscript M it reads "invited to him." See, regarding the obligation of accepting an invitation, what has already passed in the Musnad of Ibn Umar, 5766.