Soundness of the hadeeth, “Whoever recites Aayat al-Kursiy after every prayer

 

What do you say about the hadeeth of Abu Umaamah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever recites Aayat al-Kursiy after every prescribed prayer is not prevented from entering Paradise by anything except death”?

Praise be to
Allaah.

This
hadeeth was narrated by al-Nasaa’i in ‘Aml al-Yawm wa’l-Laylah,
by Ibn al-‘Sunni in ‘Aml al-Yawm wa’l-Laylah, by al-Tabaraani
in al-Kabeer and by others, via Muhammad ibn Humayr from Muhammad
ibn Ziyaad al-Alhaani from Abu Umaamah (may Allaah be pleased with him)
from the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). There is nothing wrong
with its isnaad, and it was classed as saheeh by Ibn Hibbaan in
Kitaab al-Salaah and by al-Mundhiri, Ibn ‘Abd al-Haadi and Ibn Katheer.

 It
was extreme on the part of Ibn al-Jaawzi to include it in his book al-Mawdoo’aat
(“fabricated reports”), and this is not to be accepted. 

The hadeeth was narrated
only by Muhammad ibn Humayr from al-Alhaani.

 This
hadeeth may be classified as ma’lool (defective), especially as al-Qasawi
(may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Muhammad ibn Humayr is not qawiy
(strong).

 Ibn
al-Ma’een disagreed with him and said that he [Muhammad ibn Humayr]
was thiqah (trustworthy). Imaam Ahmad said, I do not know anything but
good about him. Al-Nasaa’i said: there is nothing wrong with him.

 The
isnaad of this hadeeth is jayyid, but it is not saheeh. But reports
of this kind may be accepted for a number of reasons:

1.    
Imaam al-Nasaa’i
(may Allaah have mercy on him) narrated it and did not regard it is
ma’lool (defective); he narrated it in his Mukhtaarah and classed
it as saheeh.

2.    
The hadeeth
does not deal with any major ruling of sharee’ah.

3.    
If a sadooq
(truthful narrator) is the only one to narrate a hadeeth, it may be
accepted if there is evidence that his narration was of good quality.
The fact that Muhammad ibn Humayr was the only one to narrate it is
a case in point, but there is corroborating evidence in the ahaadeeth
of al-Mugheerah ibn Shu’bah, Abu Mas’ood and ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib, even
though none of those reports are saheeh. And Allaah knows best.