Query regarding several Duas

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Query regarding several Duʿāʾs (supplications)

Question

Please can you confirm the accuracy and authenticity of the following Duʿāʾs (supplications):

Place your hand at the place where you feel pain in your body and say بسم الله three times and say seven times أعوذ بالله وقدرته من شر ما أجد وأحاذر (Muslim).
Supplication when entering the toilet: بسم الله اللهم إني أعوذ بك من الخبث والخبائث (Tirmidhī). Supplication when leaving the toilet: غفرانك (Abū Dāwūd).
Supplication after drinking milk: اللهم بارك لنا فيه وزدنا منه (Tirmidhī).
Supplication when leaving home: بسم الله توكلت على الله لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله (Abū Dāwūd).
Supplication when it rains: اللهم صيبا نافعا (Bukhārī). Also, the Prophet ﷺ said that Duʿāʾ is accepted when it rains (Ḥākim).
Whoever recites after eating الحمد لله الذي أطعمنيهذا ورزقنيه من غير حول مني ولا قوة, Allah will forgive his previous sins (Abū Dāwūd).
Whoever says جزى الله عنا محمدا بما هو أهله, it will tire seventy angels for 1000 days [to record the reward] (Ṭabarānī)
Supplication when having evil thoughts: أعوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم، آمنت بالله ورسوله (Muslim).

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Answer

(1) This ḥadīth is transmitted in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (2202) and is therefore authentic.

(2a) There are two separate narrations here although some narrations combine both the supplications (see ʿUmdat al-Qārī, 2:272; al-Wābil al-Ṣayyib, p.138). The second part of the supplication اللهم إني أعوذ بك من الخبث والخبائث is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (142) as well as Sunan al-Tirmidhī (6) and other books.

The first part بسم الله is in Sunan al-Tirmidhī (606), Sunan Ibn Mājah (296) from the ḥadīth of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661, may Allah be pleased with him) as part of a separate narration. Imam Tirmidhī (d. 279/892) has described this ḥadīth as weak. Imam Nawawī (d. 676/1277) and Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1014/1605) concur with this, however, both add that such weak ḥadīths can be used in matters of virtue (al-Adhkār, p.25). Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyah (d. 728/1328) and Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) also regard its use acceptable (Sharḥ al-ʿUmdah, Kitāb al-Ṭahārah, p.137; al-Wābil al-Ṣayyib, p.138). In addition, the ḥanafī ḥadīth expert Ḥāfiẓ Mugalṭāya (d. 762/1361) suggests the ḥadīth can be ṣaḥīḥ (sound), a view shared by Ḥāfiẓ Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) and ʿAllāmah Munāwī (d. 1031/1622) (Sharḥ Ibn Mājah, 1:72; Fayḍ al-Qadīr, 4:96).

Further, the narration has been transmitted through another chain in al-Duʿāʾ (368) and al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (7066) of Imam Ṭabarānī (d. 360/971) as well as in al-ʿAẓamah (5:1667) of Imam Abū al-Shaykh al-Aṣbahānī (d. 369/979) from Anas ibn Mālik (d. 93/711-2, may Allah be pleased with him). Ḥāfiẓ Haythamī (d. 807/1405) suggests that the narrators of one of the chains of Imam Ṭabarānī are thiqah (trustworthy) except one regarding whom there are mixed views (Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid, 1:205). Thus, this corroborates the ḥadīth of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him).

The narration has also been transmitted in Fawāʾid Tammām (1711) and Tārīkh Dimashq (31:75) from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (d. 74/693-4, may Allah be pleased with him) via a chain similar to the chain of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him). This chain is also weak (Itḥaf al-Khiyarah, 1:274; al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliyah, 2:158) and perhaps has an error with Anas replaced by Abū Saʿīd by a transmitter.

Overall, it appears that the ḥadīth is at least ḥasan (agreeable) and even if it is weak it can be used, as mentioned above.

(2b) As for the supplication غفرانك when leaving the toilet, it is transmitted in Sunan Abī Dāwūd (30), Sunan Ibn Mājah (300), Sunan al-Tirmidhī (7), Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah (90), Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (1444), al-Mustadrak (563) and other books. Imam Tirmdhī (d. 279/892) has declared it ḥasan (agreeable) whilst Imam Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354/965), Imam Ibn Khuzaymah (d. 311/924), Imam Ḥākim (d. 405/1014) and Ḥāfiẓ Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) have declared it ṣaḥīḥ (sound).

(3) This supplication after drinking milk اللهم بارك لنا فيه وزدنا منه is transmitted in Sunan al-Tirmidhī (3455), Sunan Ibn Mājah (3322) and Sunan Abī Dāwūd (3730), and categorised as ḥasan (agreeable) by Imam Tirmidhī (d. 279/892).

(4) This supplication بسم الله توكلت على الله لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله when leaving the home is transmitted in Sunan Abī Dāwūd (5095), Sunan al-Tirmidhī (3426), Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (822) and other books. Although Imam Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354/965) classifies it as ṣaḥīḥ (sound), Imam Tirmidhī (d. 279/892) classifies it as ḥasan (agreeable), which appears to be more correct (See Imam Bukhārī’s comments in al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr, 673). Either way, the ḥadīth is established.

(5a) The supplication when it rains اللهم صيبا نافعا is transmitted in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1032).

(5b) In relation to the ḥadīth that Duʿāʾ is accepted when it rains, this is transmitted in Sunan Abī Dāwūd (2540), al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (5756), al-Mustadrak (2534) and al-Sunan al-Kubrā (6459). The narrator who transmits this addition of “when it rains” is unknown (Taqrīb, p.209; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, 9:183) and most narrations do not mention this addition. Nevertheless, there are also other narrations on this subject, although they are weak, they collectively provide some strength (al-Muʿjam al-Ṣagīr, 471; also see al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, 7713; al-Sunan al-Kubrā, 6460; al-Durr al-Manthūr, 7:354). It is for this reason Imam Shāfiʿī has encouraged duʿāʾ when it rains (al-Umm, 1:289).

(6) The supplication الحمد لله الذي أطعمني هذا ورزقنيه من غير حول مني ولا قوة with exactly these words is in Sunan al-Tirmidhī (3458) and has been classified ḥasan (agreeable). In Sunan Abī Dāwūd (4023), there is an addition of a word: الحمد لله الذي أطعمني هذا الطعام ورزقنيه من غير حول مني ولا قوة. The ḥadīth has been transmitted with and without this addition in other books although the first is more common. There are also other supplications in ḥadīth books for after food.

(7) This narration has been transmitted in several books via Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ (d. 158/774-5) from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad (d. 148/765-6) from ʿIkrimah (d. 105/723) from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687-8, may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. We have come across two routes to Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ.

The first is via Hāniʾ ibn al-Mutwakkil (d. 242/856-7) as transmitted in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (235), al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (11509), Musnad al-Shāmiyyīn (2070), al-Targīb fī Faḍāʾil al-Aʿmāl (15), Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʾ (3:206), Tārīkh Baghdad (8:334), al-Fawāʾid al-Muntaqāh (2:153), Tārīkh Asbahān (2:200) and al-Mashīkhah al-Baghdādiyyah (18^th part, no. 17). Hāniʾ is known to transmit munkar (unknown) narrations and is unreliable, therefore his narration cannot be relied upon (al-Majrūḥīn, 3:97; Mīzān, 4:291; Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid, 10:163; Lisān, 8:319; al-Qawl al-Badīʿ, p.52; al-Yawāqīt al-Gāliyah, 1:338).

The second is via Rushayd ibn Saʿd (n.d.), as transmitted in Akhbār al-Quḍāt (3:273), al-Targīb wa al-Tarhīb of Abū al-Qāsim Taymī (1700) and some other books (al-Qawl al-Badīʿ, p.52). Rushayd is also a very weak narrator with Imam Ibn Maʿīn (d. 233/848) describing him as “he is nothing” (Tārīkh Ibn Maʿīn riwāyat Ibn Muḥriz, 1:51). It appears, Allah knows best, that he is the same person as Rishdīn ibn Saʿd (d. 188/804). This is because Rishdīn is listed in the students of Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ (Tārīkh Dimashq, 59:45; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, 28:186) and there does not appear to be any mention of Rushayd in the books of biographies except in Tārīkh Ibn Maʿīn riwāyat Ibn Muḥriz. However, the same comment has been made by Imam Ibn Maʿīn in relation to Rishdīn which perhaps suggests that there is a typing error in Tārīkh Ibn Maʿīn riwāyat Ibn Muḥriz (See Tārīkh Ibn Maʿīn riwāyat al-Dārimī, p.109; al-Kāmil, 4:68; Mīzān, 2:49; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, 9:191; Taqrīb, p.209). Further, Ḥāfiẓ Sakhāwī (d. 902/1497) quotes the narration of al-Targīb wa al-Tarhīb of Abū al-Qāsim Taymī and mentions that it is narrated by Rishdīn ibn Saʿd (al-Qawl al-Badīʿ, p.52). Although Rishdīn is a weak transmitter on the whole, Ḥāfiẓ Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) suggests his memory is bad and cannot be relied upon. Ḥāfiẓ Ibrāhīm al-Jawzajānī (d. 259/873) suggests he has many munkar (unknown) narrations. It appears that this narration of his is from this category. There are also other defects within this chain.

Ḥāfiẓ Sakhāwī writes that other transmitters have also narrated the ḥadīth from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ. However, our respected Shaykh Muḥammad Yūnus Jownpūrī (d. 1438/2017) explains that their chains are all weak (al-Yawāqīt al-Gāliyah, 1:338).

Another point which requires further exploring is that I have not yet come across any narration of Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad from ʿIkrimah. Their profiles in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (5:74; 20:264) do not mention them having transmitted narrations from one another. This is potentially another defect in all the chains.

In conclusion, this ḥadīth appears to be extremely weak. In addition, the apparent wording of the narration which uses the word “tire” cannot have a literal meaning because it contradicts the verses that mention that angels do not get tired when remembering Allah (Qurʾān, 21:20; 41:38) and by extension when fulfilling their duties. However, it could be a reference to the angels remaining busy.

The discussion thus far is in relation to the authenticity of the narration. In so far as the wording جزى الله عنا محمدا بما هو أهله is concerned, there is nothing wrong with this. There is therefore no harm in using these words, as long as one does not regard the specific wording authentic.

(8) Finally, in relation to the supplication to repel Satanic whispers, a ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (134) states to recite آمنت بالله ورسله, while another version of the same ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim suggests: آمنت بالله. Another version of the same ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim suggests to seek Allah’s refuge, which is achieved through any form of taʿawwudh including the standard form which you have written. As for the wording in the question آمنت بالله ورسوله, this wording is found in Musnad Ibn Abī Shaybah (21), Musnad Aḥmad (21867), al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (1896), ʿAmal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (624). A narration in Musnad Aḥmad (8376) has the following wording: آمنت بالله وبرسله. Any of these phrases can be used.

Allah knows best

Yusuf Shabbir

17 Rajab 1439 / 3 April 2018

Approved by: Mufti Shabbir Ahmed and Mufti Muhammad Tahir