The Prophet ﷺ said, "Whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and seeking reward will have his past sins forgiven."Ubayy said, I heard it four times from Sufyan. Once he said, "Whoever fasts Ramadan," and once he said, "Whoever stands in prayer." And, "Whoever stands in prayer on Laylat al-Qadr out of faith and seeking reward will have his past sins forgiven."
حدثنا سفيان عن الزهري عن أبي سلمة
عن النبي ﷺ من صام رمضان إيمانا واحتسابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه قال أبي سمعته أربع مرات من سفيان وقال مرة من صام رمضان وقال مرة من قام ومن قام ليلة القدر إيمانا واحتسابا غفر له ما تقدم من ذنبه
Its chain of transmission is sahih. This has already appeared earlier as no. 7170, transmitted by Muhammad bin Fudayl from Yahya bin Saeed from Abu Salama from Abu Hurairah, "Whoever fasts Ramadan..." Here Imam Ahmad mentions that he heard it from Ibn Uyayna four times with two different wordings, "Whoever fasts Ramadan" and "Whoever stands in prayer during Ramadan," with the remainder of the hadith in both wordings being, "Whoever stands in prayer on Laylat al-Qadr." All of these are sahih and firmly established from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ through the narration of Abu Hurairah.Bukhari narrated the version "Whoever fasts Ramadan" in 1:86, through the route of Muhammad bin Fudayl, as we noted there. He also narrated it in 4:221 from Ibn Madini, who said, "Sufyan narrated to us," and said, "We memorized it, and it was only memorized from Zuhri, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurairah," and so on. He then said, "Sulayman bin Kathir followed him in narrating from Zuhri."Muslim narrated it in 1:210-211 through the route of Muaz bin Hisham from his father from Yahya bin Abu Kathir, who said, "Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman narrated to us that Abu Hurairah told them that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Whoever fasts Ramadan out of faith and in hope of reward will have his previous sins forgiven, and whoever stands in prayer on Laylat al-Qadr out of faith and in hope of reward will have his previous sins forgiven.'"Muslim also narrated in 1:210, through the route of Abdul-Razzaq from Mamar from Zuhri from Abu Salama from Abu Hurairah, as a raised hadith, "Whoever stands in prayer during Ramadan..." Bukhari likewise narrated it in 4:217 through the route of Aqeel from Zuhri. Bukhari also narrated it in 4:217-218, and Muslim in 1:210, from the narration of Malik from Zuhri from Humayd bin Abdul-Rahman from Abu Hurairah.It appears in the Muwatta on page 123, from the narration of Malik from Zuhri from Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman from Abu Hurairah. I have not found any of the commentators on the Sahihayn who pointed out the discrepancy between the narration of the two sheikhs through Malik from Zuhri from Humayd bin Abdul-Rahman, and the narration of the Muwatta from the hadith of Malik from Zuhri from Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman.However, when the Hafiz mentioned the narration of Aqeel from Zuhri from Abu Salama, he said, "This is how Aqeel narrated it, and Yunus, Shuayb, Ibn Abu Dhib, Mamar, and others followed him in this, while Malik differed from him, saying, 'from Ibn Shihab from Humayd bin Abdul-Rahman' instead of Abu Salama. Both routes are sahih according to Bukhari, so he included them both in succession." Nasai narrated it through the route of Juwayria bin Asma from Malik from Zuhri from both of them together. Daraqutni mentioned the discrepancy in it and confirmed both routes as sahih.This is sound and correct speech. However, it can be criticized in that it did not point to the narration of the Muwatta, which agrees with the narration of Sufyan, Aqeel, and others. Meanwhile, Ibn Abdul-Barr mentioned this hadith of the Muwatta in Taqassi, no. 392, in the narration of Malik from Zuhri from Abu Salama, and did not mention it in the narration of Malik from Zuhri from Humayd bin Abdul-Rahman.Suyuti, in his commentary on the Muwatta 1:135, drew attention to this discrepancy, and quoted the words of Ibn Abdul-Barr in Tamhid, in which it says, "According to Qanabi, Mutarrif, Shafii, Ibn Nafi, Ibn Bukayr, and Abu Musab, from Malik, his hadith is from Ibn Shihab from Humayd bin Abdul-Rahman bin Awf from Abu Hurairah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Whoever stands in prayer during Ramadan out of faith and in hope of reward will have his previous sins forgiven.' This is how they narrated it in the Muwatta, and it does not exist at all according to Yahya. And according to Shafii there is the hadith of Humayd, and he does not have the hadith of Abu Salama."This explains the reason why Ibn Abdul-Barr avoided pointing to the discrepancy in Taqassi, since in Taqassi he relies only on the Muwatta through the narration of Yahya bin Yahya alone, as he explicitly stated at its beginning.As for the endless wonder, it is what Zurqani did in his commentary on the Muwatta 1:212, where the matter became confused for him. He quoted the words of the Hafiz in Fath in reverse, without attributing it to him. He said, regarding the narration of Malik from Ibn Shihab from Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman bin Awf, the following text, "Aqeel, Yunus, Shuayb, and others narrated it from Zuhri, from Humayd, instead of Abu Salama," while the narration of Aqeel and those who followed him, as we quoted before, is in fact from Abu Salama, like the narration of the Muwatta through the narration of Yahya. As for the narration of Humayd, it is a narration other than that of Yahya in the Muwatta, and other than the narration of Aqeel, Yunus, and Shuayb...! No scholar is ever free of oversight or error.