21 - Chapter on Boldness and Cowardice

2511 - Abdullah ibn al-Jarrah narrated to us, from Abdullah ibn Yazid, from Musa ibn Ulayy ibn Rabah, from his father, from Abdul-Aziz ibn Marwan, who said:

I heard Abu Hurayrah say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: "The worst thing in a man is a raging miserliness and a cowardice that unnerves." (1)

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It is found in "Sunan Sa'id ibn Mansur" (2326), and from him Muslim (1896).

Muslim (1896) also recorded it through multiple chains from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Abu Sa'id, the freed slave of al-Mahri, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri.

It is found in "Musnad Ahmad" (11110), and "Sahih Ibn Hibban" (4629).

There is no contradiction between this hadith and the one preceding it, for the word "half" was used there with reference to the total reward obtained by the fighter and the one who remains behind and prays for him with good — for when the reward is divided between them into two halves, each of them receives the like of what the other receives. This was noted by al-Hafiz in "al-Fath."

(1) A sound hadith. This chain is good on account of Abdullah ibn al-Jarrah, who is al-Tamimi al-Quhustani — but he has a corroborator. Abdullah ibn Yazid is al-Makki al-Muqri', and Abdul-Aziz ibn Marwan is Ibn al-Hakam al-Umawi, father of the Commander of the Faithful Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz, the rightly-guided caliph, and brother of the caliph Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan.

It was also recorded by Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak in "al-Jihad" (111), Ibn Abi Shaybah 9/98, Ishaq ibn Rahawayh — in the section of the Musnad of Abu Hurayrah — (341) and (342), Ahmad (8010) and (8263), Abd ibn Humayd (1428), al-Bukhari in "al-Tarikh al-Kabir" in suspended form 6/8, Ibn Hibban (3250), Abu Nu'aym in "al-Hilyah" 9/50, al-Quda'i in "Musnad al-Shihab" (1338), and al-Bayhaqi 9/170, through multiple chains from Musa ibn Ulayy ibn Rabah, with this chain.

His saying: "raging miserliness" (shuhhun hali'un) — al-Khattabi said: The origin of hala' is anxiety and distress, and al-hali' here means one possessed of hala', like the saying of al-Nabighah: "Leave me to my grief, O Umaymah, that is exhausting," meaning one possessed of exhaustion. It is said that miserliness (shuhh) is more severe than stinginess (bukhl), and its meaning is the stinginess that prevents one from giving the right that is obligatory upon him — so when it is extracted from him, he becomes anxious and distressed by it. And "cowardice that unnerves" (jubnun khali'un) is the severe cowardice that tears out one's heart from the intensity of one's fear.