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Hadith regarding honey, plate and hair

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by IslamicPortal.co.uk

Is the following narration authentic?

Rasūlullāh ﷺ with his best friend and companion Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān come to ʿAlī’s house. Inside the house, Fāṭimah served them with honey and poured it into a beautiful plate. When the honey was ready to be served, a hair fell in the plate. The Prophet ﷺ asked his companions to make a comparison about the all three things (the beautiful plate, honey, and the hair).

Abu Bakr said, “īmān(faith) is more beautiful than this beautiful plate, people who have īmān (faith) are sweeter than honey, and holding īmān (faith) is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

ʿUmar said, “kingdom is more beautiful than this beautiful plate, a king is sweeter than honey, and to rule with justice is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

ʿUthmān said, “knowledge is more beautiful than this beautiful plate, people who seek knowledge are sweeter than honey, and to do goodness with knowledge is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

ʿAlī said, “a guest is more beautiful than this beautiful plate, to serve a guest is sweeter than honey, and to make a guest happy until they return to their home is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

Fāṭimah said, “a woman is more beautiful than a beautiful plate, a woman with hijab is sweeter than honey, and to find a woman that has never been seen by anyone except her maḥārim is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

The Prophet ﷺ said, “someone who has tawfīq from Allah is more beautiful than this beautiful plate, to do goodness is sweeter than this honey, and to do so with ikhlāṣ (sincerity) is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

Jibrīl said, “to build the foundation of a religion is more beautiful than a beautiful plate, to give your life, your wealth, your time for religious efforts is sweeter than honey, and to defend the religion until the end of one’s life is more difficult than walking on a single hair.”

And Allah Almighty said, “My Heaven is more beautiful than that beautiful plate, the Joy of My Heaven is sweeter than that honey, and the way to My Heaven is more difficult than walking a single hair.”

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Answer

We have not come across this narration in the books of ḥadīth available to us and it appears to be fabricated.

قال الحافظ ابن القیم في المنار المنیف (ص ٥۰): والأحاديث الموضوعة عليها ظلمة وركاكة ومجازفات باردة تنادي على وضعها واختلاقها على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم، انتهى. وقال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: من تعمد علي كذبا فليتبوأ مقعده من النار، رواه البخاري (١٠٨)۔

Allah knows best

Yusuf Shabbir

21 Rajab 1440 / 27 March 2019

Approved by: Mufti Shabbir Ahmed and Mufti Muhammad Tahir

This answer was collected from IslamicPortal.co.uk, which is a repository of Islamic Q&A, articles, books, and resources. Various schools write and oversee the answers, including Maulana Yusuf Shabbir, Mufti Shabbir Ahmed, and Mufti Muhammad Tahir. 

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