How authentic is the hadith: "Indeed, when a servant commits a sin, it is not written against him until he commits another sin, and it is not written against him until he commits yet another sin. So, when five sins accumulate against him, and he performs one good deed, five good deeds are recorded for him. And these five good deeds are made to correspond to the five evil deeds. At this, Iblis—curse be upon him—cries out, saying: 'How can I overcome the son of Adam, when, no matter how hard I strive against him, he nullifies all my effort with a single good deed?'"?
The hadith mentioned in the question has no known chain of transmission (isnad) in the books of the scholars of hadith. The author of the book "Tanbih al-Ghafilin" – in which the hadith appeared – was not a scholar of hadith, and his book is full of material that cannot be authentically attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. What suffices in place of this hadith is what Al-Tabarani and Al-Bayhaqi narrated from Abu Umamah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Indeed, the angel on the left holds his pen for six hours from recording the sin of a Muslim servant who makes a mistake or commits a wrong. If he repents and seeks Allah's forgiveness for it, the sin is discarded. Otherwise, it is written as one (sin)." This hadith was graded hasan (good) by Sheikh Al-Albani.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
Read the full answer on Ftawyhttps://ftawy.com/en/questions/133021