The story of Tha‘labah who saw a woman doing ghusl, and died from fear of Allah

Question: 145797

I would like to find out whether a story I have heard is saheeh (sound, true). If it turns out to be da‘eef (weak), is it still permissible to tell it? Because telling it has a good effect on people’s hearts. When I tell it, do I have to do point out that it is da‘eef? The story is as follows:

Tha‘labah ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan was an orphan boy of the Ansaar, who was no older than sixteen years. He often used to sit with the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), who sent him on an errand one day to the markets of Madinah. He passed by one of the houses of the Ansaar, and looked at the door of the house, which was open. There was a curtain to the hamaam (bathroom) that was closed, but the wind came and lifted the curtain, behind which there was a woman who was doing ghusl. He glanced at her once or twice, then he realised what was happening and took the matter very seriously. He was afraid that verses would be revealed concerning him and that he would be described as one of the hypocrites because of this sin. He was afraid to go back to the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), so he went out into the desert, and no one knew where he had gone. When three days had gone by, (the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)) instructed some of the Sahaabah to go and look for him in Madinah, but they found no trace of him. He waited until forty days had passed, then he instructed them to look for him in the wilderness areas, because he (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was worried about him. They went and looked for him, and they came to a group of Bedouin and described him to them. The Bedouin said: Perhaps you are looking for the weeping boy? They said: Where is he? They said: On the slopes of this mountain; he will come down at the end of the day. So they lay in wait for him then they caught him and carried him to his house, because he was exhausted from weeping so much. The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) went to him, and Tha‘labah asked him whether any verses had been revealed concerning him. He said: “No.” Tha‘labah became very sick, and the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) sat beside him until he died (may Allah be pleased with him). Then they offered the funeral prayer for him and when they carried the bier to bury him, the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was walking on tiptoe. ‘Umar asked him about that and he said: “Woe to you, O ‘Umar. By Allah, I cannot find any place to put my feet because so many of the angels are crowding around me.”

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

The story
mentioned in the question is a summary of a lengthy story that was
narrated from Jaabir ibn ‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) who
said:

A young man of the
Ansaar who was called Tha‘labah ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan became Muslim, and he
used to serve the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). He
sent him on an errand, and he passed by the door of a man among the Ansaar,
where he saw an Ansaari woman doing ghusl. He looked repeatedly at her,
after which he became afraid that Revelation would come down to the
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), so he went
out, fleeing, and came to a mountainous area between Makkah and Madinah,
where he hid. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) missed him for forty days, and these were the days when they said his
Lord had forsaken him and was displeased with him, then Jibreel (peace be
upon him) came down to the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) and said: O Muhammad, your Lord conveys greetings of peace
(salaam) to you, and says: The man from your ummah who has fled is in these
mountains, seeking refuge with Me from My Fire. The Messenger of Allah
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “O ‘Umar! O Salmaan! Go and
bring Tha‘labah ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan to me.” They set out through the streets
of Madinah and were met by one of the shepherds of Madinah whose name was
Dhufaafah. ‘Umar said to him: O Dhufaafah, do you know anything about a
young man in these mountains? Dhufaafah said to him: Perhaps you are looking
for the one who is fleeing from Hell? ‘Umar said to him: How do you know
that he is fleeing from Hell? He said: Because in the middle of the night he
came out to us from these mountains with his hand on his head, saying: Would
that You took my soul as You took other souls and my body as You took other
bodies, and not expose me on the Day of Judgement! ‘Umar said: He is the one
we are looking for. So Dhufaafah set out with them, and in the middle of the
night he came out to them from those mountains, with his hand on his head,
saying: Would that You took my soul as You took other souls and my body as
You took other bodies, and not expose me on the Day of Judgement! ‘Umar went
to him and embraced him and (Tha‘labah) said: I want to be safe from the
Fire. ‘Umar said to him: I am ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. He said: O ‘Umar, does
the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) know of my
sin? He said: All I know is that he remembered you yesterday, and the
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) wept.
Tha‘labah said: O ‘Umar, do not let me enter upon him except when he is
praying, and Bilaal is saying Qad qaamat as-salaah (Prayer is about
to begin – i.e., the iqaamah or call immediately preceding the prayer).
‘Umar said: I shall do that. Then they brought him to Madinah and arrived
when the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was
praying Fajr. ‘Umar and Salmaan hastened to join the row (of worshippers),
and no sooner did Tha‘labah hear the recitation of the Messenger of Allah
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), but he fell unconscious. When
the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said the
salaam (at the end of the prayer), he said: “O ‘Umar, O Salmaan, what
happened to Tha‘labah ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan?” They said: He is over there, O
Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be
upon him) stood up and said: “O Tha‘labah!” He said: Here I am, O Messenger
of Allah. He looked at him and said: “What kept you away from me?” He said:
My sin, O Messenger of Allah. He said: “Shall I not tell you about a verse
that will expiate sins and errors?” He said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah. He
said: “Say: Allaahumma aatina fi’d-dunya hasanah wa fi’l-aakhirati
hasanah wa qinna ‘adhaab an-naar (O
Allah! Give us in this world that which is good and in the Hereafter that
which is good, and save us from the torment of the Fire) (cf. al-Baqarah
2:201).” He said: My sin is too great, O Messenger of Allah. The Messenger
of Allah
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Rather the
word of Allah is greater.” Then the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him) instructed him to go home. He fell sick for eight
days, then Salmaan came to the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, do you want to visit
Tha‘labah, because he is sick? The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him) said: “Let us go to him.” When he entered upon him,
the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) took hold
of his head and placed it in his lap, but he pulled his head away from the
lap of the Messenger of Allah. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace
of Allah be upon him) said to him: “Why did you pull your head away from my
lap?” He said: Because it is full of sins. He said: “What do you feel?” He
said: I feel something like the crawling of ants between my skin and my
bones. He said: “What do you long for?” He said: The forgiveness of my Lord.
Then Jibreel (peace be upon him) came down to the Messenger of Allah
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and said: Verily your Lord
conveys greetings of salaam to you and says: If this slave of Mine were to
meet Me with an earthful of sins, I would meet him with a similar measure of
forgiveness. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) said: “Should I not tell him about that?” He said: Yes indeed. So the
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) told him about
that, and he gave a shout then died. The Messenger of Allah (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) gave instructions that he should be washed and
shrouded, and he offered the funeral prayer for him. Then the Messenger of
Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) began walking on tiptoe and
they said: O Messenger of Allah, why do we see you walking on tiptoe? He
said: By the One Who sent me with the truth as a Prophet, I could not put my
feet on the ground because of the many wings of the angels who came down to
accompany his funeral procession.

Narrated by Abu
Na‘eem in Hilyat al-Awliya’, 9/329-331; and in Ma‘rifat
as-Sahaabah, 1/498, and via him by Ibn al-Jawzi in al-Mawdoo‘aat,
3/121

Al-Kharaa’iti
narrated it in I‘tilaal al-Quloob, 272; it was narrated via him by
Ibn Qudaamah in at-Tawwaabeen, 105-108

It was narrated by
Abu ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan as-Sulami in Tabaqaat as-Soofiyyah, p. 51; and by
Ibn Mandah in brief, as mentioned in al-Isaabah by Ibn Hajar, 1/405

All of them
narrated it via Sulaym ibn Mansoor ibn ‘Ammaar: my father told us, from
al-Munkadir ibn Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, from his father, from Jaabir ibn
‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him)… And he quoted the story.

But the report of
al-Kharaa’iti does not refer to the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted,
says (interpretation of the meaning): “your
Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you”
[ad-Duha 93:3].

This hadeeth is
da‘eef, and has a number of problems.

None of the
scholars stated in clear terms that Sulaym ibn Mansoor ibn ‘Ammaar was
reliable.

Ibn Abi Haatim
(may Allah have mercy on him) said: My father narrated from him, and I asked
him about him. I said: The scholars of Baghdad criticise him. He said: Stop.
I asked Ibn Abi’th-Thalj about him. I said to him: They are saying that he
wrote down hadeeth from Ibn ‘Aliyyah when he was young. He said: No; rather
he was older than us. End quote.

Al-Jarh
wa’t-Ta‘deel,
4?216

Adh-Dhahabi (may
Allah have mercy on him) said:

He was criticised
but his hadeeth was not rejected. End quote.

Al-Mughni
fi’d-Du‘afa’,
1/285

Some of the
scholars stated that there was an investigation to see if there were any
similar reports, but it was not thorough.

Ibn ‘Iraq said:

There was an
investigation to see if there were any other reports that were similar to
that of Sulaym. That was narrated by ‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Umar ad-Darraaj in his
book. He said: Abu Nasr Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hishaam at-Taaliqaani told
us: my grandfather told me: Mansoor ibn ‘Ammaar told us. But I do not know
who this at-Taaliqaani was. End quote.

Tanzeeh
ash-Sharee‘ah,
1/349

The preacher
Mansoor ibn ‘Ammaar.

He was extremely
eloquent in preaching and was able to move people deeply. He preached in
Baghdad, Syria and Egypt, and he became very famous.

Abu Haatim said:
He is not qawiy (strong). Ibn ‘Adiyy said: His hadeeth is odd. Al-‘Uqayli
said: He is influenced by Jahami views. Ad-Daaraqutni said: He narrated from
da‘eef narrators hadeeths that were not narrated by others.

See: Mizaan
al-I‘tidaal, 4/187-188

Al-Munkadir ibn
Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir

Ibn ‘Uyaynah said:
He was not a scholar of hadeeth. It was narrated from Yahya ibn Ma‘een: He
is insignificant. On one occasion he said: There is nothing wrong with him.
Abu Zar‘ah said: He is not qawiy (strong). Abu Haatim said: He was a man who
did not understand hadeeth. He made many mistakes and did not memorise the
hadeeth of his father. Al-Jawzjaani and an-Nasaa’i said: (He is) da‘eef .
al-Haafiz Ibn Hajar summed up the ruling on him in at-Taqreeb, where
he said: His hadeeth is not very strong.

See: Tahdheeb
at-Tahdheeb, 10/318

There are also
problems in the text of the hadeeth:

The verse referred
to in the hadeeth – “your
Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you”
[ad-Duha 93:3]
– was revealed in Makkah before the Hijrah, but this hadeeth suggests that
it was revealed in Madinah after the Hijrah. This is a serious
contradiction.

Ibn al-Jawzi (may
Allah have mercy on him) was certain that it is fabricated, as he said:

This is a
fabricated hadeeth that is very strange, and the fabricator exposed his
fabrication when he said: that was when the verse “your
Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you”
[ad-Duha 93:3]
was revealed to him. But this verse was revealed to him in Makkah, and there
is no scholarly disagreement concerning that. Moreover there was no one
among the Sahaabah who was called Dhufaafah. Its isnaad contains a number of
da‘eef narrators, including al-Munkadir, of whom Yahya said: He is
insignificant, and Ibn Hibbaan said: He used to say things on the basis of
his imagination. So his reports are not valid to be used as proof. Another
(of these da‘eef narrators) is Sulaym ibn Mansoor, who was criticized by
some scholars of hadeeth. End quote.

Al-Mawdoo‘aat,
3/123. As-Suyooti agreed with him in al-La’aali al-Masnoo‘ah, 1/416

Ibn al-Atheer (may
Allah have mercy on him) said:

There are other
issues in it apart from its isnaad. The verse “your
Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you”
[ad-Duha 93:3]
was revealed in the early days of Islam, in Makkah, and the hadeeth which
proves that is saheeh. But this story supposedly took place after the
Hijrah, and the two reports cannot be reconciled. End quote.

Asad al-Ghaabah,
1/385

Al-Haafiz Ibn
Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Ibn Mandah said –
after narrating it in brief: Mansoor is the only one who narrated it. I
[i.e., al-Haafiz ibn Hajar] say: There is some weakness in him, and his
shaykh is weaker than him. The content of the hadeeth also indicates that it
is weak, because the verse “your
Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you”
[ad-Duha 93:3]
was revealed before the Hijrah, and there is no difference of scholarly
opinion concerning that. End quote.

Al-Isaabah,
1/405. It was narrated and confirmed by as-Sakhkhaawi in at-Tuhfah
al-Lateefah fi Tareekh al-Madinah ash-Shareefah, 152.

To sum up: the
isnaad of this story is a chain of weak narrators, and its text also shows
that it is strange. So it is not permissible to narrate it or speak of it
unless one explains that it is da‘eef (weak) and that it has to do with
heart-softening reports (raqaa’iq) which we cannot be less stringent about.
That is because its isnaad is extremely weak, and those scholars who
regarded it as permissible to narrate da‘eef hadeeths in the category of
heart-softening reports stipulated that they should not be extremely weak
and should not have any odd content.

For more
information, please see the answer to question no.
44877

And Allah knows
best.

Source:

Islam Q&A

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