Hadith #79

Arabic Text

English Translation

Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us saying: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd — meaning Ibn Bahrām — narrated to us, who said: Shahr ibn Ḥawshab said: Ibn Ghanm said: When we entered the mosque of al-Jābiyah — Abū al-Dardāʾ and I — we met ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit. He took my right hand with his left and Abū al-Dardāʾ's left with his right, then walked between us while we were whispering — and Allāh knows best about what we were whispering — and that was his saying. ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit said: "If either one of you — or both of you — lives long enough, you will soon see a man from the midst of the Muslims who has recited the Qurʾān on the tongue of Muḥammad ﷺ, repeating it and rehearsing it, declaring its ḥalāl as ḥalāl and its ḥarām as ḥarām, and stopping at its stopping points — or he recited it on the tongue of his brother, a recitation [traced back] to the tongue of Muḥammad ﷺ, repeating it and rehearsing it, declaring its ḥalāl and ḥarām and stopping at its stopping points — yet it will not avail among you except as the head of a dead donkey avails." While we were in that state, Shaddād ibn Aws and ʿAwf ibn Mālik appeared and sat with us. Shaddād said: "The most frightening thing I fear for you, O people, is what I heard the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ say about the hidden desire and shirk." ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit and Abū al-Dardāʾ said: "O Allāh, forgive us! Did not the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ tell us that Shayṭān has despaired of being worshipped in the Arabian Peninsula? As for the hidden desire, we know it — it is the worldly desires of women and pleasures. But what is this shirk you frighten us with, O Shaddād?" Shaddād said: "What if you saw a man praying for the sake of another man, or fasting for his sake, or giving charity for his sake? Would you consider that he has committed shirk?" They said: "Yes, by Allāh! Whoever prays for a man's sake, or fasts for his sake, or gives charity for his sake has committed shirk." Shaddād said: "I heard the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ say: 'Whoever prays showing off has committed shirk, whoever fasts showing off has committed shirk, and whoever gives charity showing off has committed shirk.'" ʿAwf ibn Mālik then said: "Would He not attend to what was done seeking His Face out of all that work, accepting what was sincerely for Him and leaving what was tainted with showing off?" Shaddād said: "I heard the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ say: 'Indeed, Allāh عز وجل says: I am the best of partners. Whoever associates anything with Me, the entirety of his deeds — small and great — belongs to the partner he associated with Me, and I am free of it.'"