And whoever comes to the ruler will be tempted (1).

2860 — Muhammad ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us, Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us, al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥakam al-Nakhaʿī narrated to us, from ʿAdī ibn Thābit, from a shaykh of the Anṣār, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ — with the meaning of Musaddad — who said: "And whoever clings to the ruler will be tempted." He added: "And a servant does not draw nearer to the ruler except that he draws farther from Allah" (2).

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(1) Ḥasan li-ghayrihi (good due to corroborating evidence), and this chain is weak due to the unknown identity of Abū Mūsā. Nevertheless, al-Tirmidhī deemed it ḥasan, and al-Baghawī in "Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah" (2792), and ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī declared it ṣaḥīḥ, and Ibn Mufliḥ in "al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyyah" 3/346 deemed its chain sound, asserting definitively that this Abū Mūsā is Isrāʾīl ibn Mūsā, the trustworthy narrator, although Imām Aḥmad explicitly stated in "al-ʿIlal" that he is not Isrāʾīl. However, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān refuted ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq in "Bayān al-Wahm wa al-Īhām" 4/362, stating that the chain of the ḥadīth contains Abū Mūsā, who is entirely unknown. Sufyān: he is al-Thawrī, and Yaḥyā: he is Ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān.

It was also recorded by al-Tirmidhī (2406) and al-Nasāʾī (4309) via the chain of Sufyān al-Thawrī, with this same chain of transmission.

On this topic, from Abū Hurayrah, will follow afterward.

(2) Ḥasan li-ghayrihi, and this chain is one in which there is disagreement concerning al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥakam al-Nakhaʿī, as we have explained in "al-Musnad" (8836). Al-Bukhārī declared it defective (ʿallalahu), as found in "al-ʿIlal al-Kabīr" of al-Tirmidhī 2/829–830, as did Abū Ḥātim in "al-ʿIlal" of his son 2/246, and al-Dāraquṭnī in "al-ʿIlal" 8/240–241. However, al-Dāraquṭnī mentioned the disagreement concerning al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥakam without ruling on it definitively. Al-Mundhirī declared it weak in "Ikhtiṣār al-Sunan." Nevertheless, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān deemed it ḥasan in "Bayān al-Wahm wa al-Īhām" 5/244–245, as did al-ʿIrāqī in "Takhrij Aḥādīth al-Iḥyāʾ," and al-ʿAjlūnī declared it ṣaḥīḥ in "Kashf al-Khafāʾ" based on what Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā narrated, from al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥakam, from ʿAdī ibn Thābit, from Abū Ḥāzim, from Abū Hurayrah — wherein Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā identified the Anṣārī shaykh, and thus the chain would consist entirely of the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ, as al-Nadhīrī said in "al-Targhīb="