Three whose supplications are not answered – An analysis of the ḥadīth

A respected query was conveyed to me from Maulana Miṣbāḥ Aḥmad Qāsimī, through the kind offices of Ḥāfiẓ Maḥmūd Karīm Ṣāḥib:

> Maulana Dr Akram Nadwi, السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
I hope you are well. Please provide the chain authenticity and interpretation of the following ḥadīth:
“Three kinds of people call upon Allah, yet their prayers are not answered: a man who keeps a wife of bad character and does not divorce her; a man who lends money but fails to bring witnesses over it; and a man who entrusts his wealth to a foolish person, though Allah has said, ‘Do not entrust your wealth to the foolish.’”

My question is that both Allah and His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) have encouraged patience with a wife of bad character. Here, however, the matter seems the opposite?

Answer:
This report is transmitted in al-Mustadrak of al-Ḥākim with the following chain and wording:

> ʿAlī b. Ḥamshādh al-ʿAdl narrated to us, Abū al-Muthannā Muʿādh b. Muʿādh al-ʿAnbarī narrated to us, from his father, from Shuʿbah, from Firās, from al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu), from the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam):
“Three people call upon Allah, yet their supplications are not answered: a man who keeps a wife of bad character and does not divorce her; a man who lends money without bringing witnesses over it; and a man who entrusts his wealth to a foolish person, though Allah has said: ‘Do not entrust your wealth to the foolish.’”

Al-Ḥākim declared this ḥadīth authentic on the conditions of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. We must, however, examine how far his judgement is correct.

This same report was narrated much earlier by Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Abī Shaybah, teacher of Imām al-Bukhārī, Imām Muslim, and others, with the chain:

> Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd narrated to us, from Shuʿbah, from Firās, from al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā, who said:
“Three kinds of people’s supplications are not answered: a man who entrusted his wealth to a foolish person, and Allah has said: ‘Do not entrust your wealth to the foolish’; a man who kept a wife of bad character and did not divorce her; and a man who had a debt owed to him but did not call witnesses over it.”

Here the narration is from Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, from Shuʿbah. It is mawqūf, that is, it stops at Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu). The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) is not mentioned. For this reason neither al-Bukhārī nor Muslim included it in their Ṣaḥīḥ. Al-Ḥākim himself admits: “They (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) did not include it because Shuʿbah’s students halted the report at Abū Mūsā.”

In fact, this report is absent from all of the kutub sittah.

According to the muḥaddithūn, the text here has become confused; it was mistakenly attached to this chain. For al-Ḥākim himself notes that the agreed wording transmitted by Shuʿbah with this chain is the report: “Three people will be given their reward twice,” which both al-Bukhārī and Muslim have narrated.

Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal held the stronger opinion that this narration is not marfūʿ (Prophetic), but rather the statement of Abū Mūsā (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu). In Masāʾil Ḥarb al-Kirmānī we read:

> I said: “The ḥadīth of Shuʿbah from Firās, from al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Burdah, from Abū Mūsā, from the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam): ‘Three people call upon Allah and are not answered’?”
He (Imām Aḥmad) replied: “It is not considered with us to be musnad (Prophetic). Ghundar narrated it without isnād.”

Because this narration is mawqūf and also contrary to clear Prophetic teachings, Imām al-Dhahabī and others have declared it munkar.

Conclusion:
The stronger view is that this statement is not from the Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) but from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu). His intention was not to say that such people’s supplications are never accepted.

Rather, the meaning is that if someone is wronged and Allah has already provided him with means of relief, but he stubbornly remains in that oppression without using those means, then his supplication concerning that very condition will not be accepted.

But if he makes duʿāʾ for something else, his supplication is as valid as anyone else’s. Likewise, if he is trapped in the oppression to the point that he truly has no power to free himself, then he is excused, and his supplications will certainly be accepted.

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Disclaimer: This article was translated by AI. Original post: https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/6845