Azami 14866

Reported by Ibn Majah (3536), Ahmad (8393), and Ibn Hibban graded it sahih (6121), all from the hadith of Muhammad bin Amr, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurairah, as mentioned. Its chain is hasan because of Muhammad bin Amr, who is Ibn Alqama Laythi, for he is hasan al-hadith.Ahmad also reported it (9021) from Affan, who said, Abu Awana told us, from Umar bin Abu Salama, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, who said, it was asked, "Messenger of Allah, what is tiyarah?" He said, "There is no bird omen," three times, and he said, "The best omen is a good word." Bazzar also reported it (8678) from Abu Kamil, who said, Abu Awana told us, with this chain, with the wording, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "There is no bird omen except your own bird," three times.Umar bin Abu Salama is truthful but makes mistakes, and Yahya bin Saeed Qattan used to prefer Muhammad bin Amr bin Alqama over Umar bin Abu Salama, so the wording of Muhammad is the more likely to be correct. And Allah knows best.His saying "tiyarah" (with a kasrah on the unpointed letter and a fatha on the ya, though it may also take a sakin) means pessimism about something. It is a verbal noun from "tatayyara," like "tahayyara, hayrah." Some scholars of language said that no other verbal nouns come in this pattern except these two, but this was challenged on the grounds that "tayyibah" has also been heard in this form, and some cited "tawlah" as well, though this is open to question.The origin of tatayyar is that in the pre-Islamic era, people relied on birds. When one of them set out for some matter, if he saw a bird fly to the right, he took it as a good omen and continued on, and if he saw it fly to the left, he took it as a bad omen and turned back. Sometimes a man would stir up a bird to make it fly so that he could rely on its direction. Then the sacred law came with a prohibition against this.They used to call the bird that flew to the right "as-sanih" and the one that flew to the left "al-barih." As-sanih was that which passed by you in a way that turned its right side toward you, meaning it passed from your left to your right, while al-barih was the opposite. They took as-sanih as a good omen and al-barih as a bad omen. See Fath al-Bari (10/212-213).The word "tatayyar" was then extended metaphorically to cover any kind of pessimism, whether caused by birds or by something else. This is referenced in the words of Allah Almighty, "But when good came to them, they said, 'This is ours [by right],' and when a bad [condition] struck them, they attributed it to Moses and those with him. Unquestionably, their attribution is with Allah, but most of them do not know" [Araf 7:131], and His words, "They said, 'Indeed, we consider you a bad omen. If you do not desist, we will surely stone you, and you will surely receive from us a painful punishment'" [Surah Yasin 36:18].As for what has been reported from Abu Hurairah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ heard a word that pleased him and said, "We have taken your good omen from your own mouth," its chain is daif. It is reported by Abu Dawud (3917) and Ahmad (9040), both by way of Wahib, that is, Ibn Khalid, who said, Suhayl told us, from a man, from Abu Hurairah, as mentioned.Ibn Sunni also reported it in Amal al-Yawm wal-Layla (291) from Abu Yaala, who said, Abbas bin Walid told us, who said, Wahib told us with it, and its chain is daif because of the unnamed narrator in it.As for what appears in some paths of the hadith, "Suhayl, from his father," I consider this to be an error, in which some narrators followed the common route and thereby erred, for if Suhayl's report had actually come from his father, there would have been no need to leave the narrator unnamed.