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Is the Hadith Qudsi, which Ibn al-Jawzi deemed weak, and which was reported as a saying attributed to Zayd ibn Aslam, or was adopted by some scholars in the past or present, sound in its attribution to Zayd ibn Aslam, who used to narrate from the Isra'iliyyat?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The hadith narrated by Jabir from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him: "A man worshipped in a monastery. The sky rained, and the earth became green. He saw a donkey grazing and said: 'O Lord, if You had a donkey, I would graze it with my donkey.' This reached a prophet from the prophets of Bani Israel, who intended to supplicate against him. So, Allah Almighty revealed to him: 'I only recompense My servants according to the extent of their intellects.'" Its chain of narration is weak and deniable due to the presence of Ahmad ibn Bashir in its chain, who is abandoned in hadith and disturbed.

The preponderant view is that it is a mawquf narration attributed to Jabir, and it resembles the Isra'iliyyat which are neither to be believed nor disbelieved. Another broken narration has been reported from Zayd ibn Aslam, with a chain of narrators who are reliable except for Abu Mis'ar, and perhaps Zayd took it from the People of the Book.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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