Ahmad 7576

Its chain is daif, due to the unknown identity of the man from whom Abu Imran Jawni narrated it. Hadith 9006 will come later, narrated from Bahz, from Hammad bin Salama, from Abu Imran, from Abu Hurairah, with similar wording, but with the unnamed man between Abu Imran and Abu Hurairah omitted.The two hadith masters, Munziri and Haythami, were deceived by this other chain. They mentioned the hadith in Targhib 3/231 and Majma al-Zawaid 8/160, and each of them said, "Ahmad narrated it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih!" They overlooked, may Allah have mercy on them, the disconnection in it. Munawi, however, did not overlook this, for Suyuti mentioned it in Jami Saghir 2658, attributing it to Tabarani in Makarim Akhlaq, and to Bayhaqi in Shuab only. Munawi said in his commentary, "In its chain is an unknown man," and he was correct.Abu Imran Jawni is Abdul-Malik bin Habib Basri, a trustworthy tabii and one of the scholars. His trustworthiness was already established at 1707, and it should be added here that Ibn Saad gave his biography at 7/2/8, and Ibn Abu Hatim at 2/2/246. However, he was among the junior tabiin, he never met Abu Hurairah, nor did he narrate from him directly, for Abu Hurairah died in the year 59, while Abu Imran died in the year 128 or 129.Jawni is pronounced with a fatha on the jim and a sukun on the waw and the nun, a designation derived from Jawn bin Awf, a branch of Azd.Something worth pointing out is that the chain of this hadith came to me in this form, "Abu Kamil narrated to us, Hammad narrated to us, from Suhayl bin Abu Salih, from his father, from Abu Hurairah!" On its face this looks like a sahih chain, one that could be described as having the narrators of the Sahih! Had this copy of the text been correct, that would indeed be so.But I consider it more likely, indeed I am certain, that this is a copyist's error, who carried this chain along the same course as the chain before it. I traced the sources of this hadith as far as I could, then traced the hadiths of Abu Salih from Abu Hurairah in the book Jami al-Masanid wal-Sunan by Hafiz Ibn Kathir, who had gathered them from the Musnad in one place, but I never found it narrated through Abu Salih at all.I then found it mentioned in the narration of Abu Imran, that is, Jawni, from Abu Hurairah, at 7/511, with the chain of the coming narration 9006. I then found it mentioned in the narration of Abu Imran Jawni, from a man, from him, meaning from Abu Hurairah, at 7/535-536, with the chain of this narration here, 7566.Abu Imran Jawni also narrated it, with similar wording but in fuller detail, omitting from it both the tabii and the companion. Kharaiti narrated it in Makarim Akhlaq, p. 74, from Hammad bin Hasan bin Anbasah, from Sayar bin Hatim, from Jafar bin Sulayman Dubai, from Abu Imran Jawni, who said, "A man said, 'O Messenger of Allah, I complain to you of the hardness of my heart.' He said, 'Bring the orphan near to you, wipe his head, and seat him at your table, your heart will soften, and you will be able to meet your need.'"