Answered by Shaykh Gibril F Haddad
I wanted to ask you whether you know any isnad for the first hadith of the article below (Concerning a conversation between our Beloved Prophet Mohammad and satan) by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani?
Wa `alaykum as-Salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh
There is no isnad for this forgery and you may immediately deduce from this that Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani never narrated it. Indeed this entire booklet is filled with forgeries and has nothing to do with this arch-Master of Hadith, as its style clearly shows since he never attributes a single forgery to the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace, in a single book of his, nor does he ever cite hadiths without mentioning either the source or the isnad or both, frequently following up with his grading, especially if they are forgeries, while this book jumps from one rambling false attribution to another without a single identification or grading.
In fact, the Munabbihat `ala al-Isti`dad li-Yawm al-Ma`ad lil-Nus-hi wal-Widad (“Admonitions for Preparation for the Day of the Return for Advice and Love”) is by Zayn al-Qudat Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Hijji or al-Hajri or Hujuri (died ??) as found in the catalogue of Arabic manuscripts of the library of Sarajevo (Number 334) and as referenced by Hajji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun (2:1848), while other manuscripts misattribute it to Ibn Hajar al-Haytami or leave the author unmentioned. (Zayn al-Qudat is practically unknown.) I read this in the doctoral thesis in history submitted to the University of Baghdad by Shakir Mahmud `Abd al-Mun`im and published in two volumes in 1997 at Mu’assasat al-Risala in Beirut under the title _Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani: Musannafatuhu wa- Dirasatun fi Manhajihi wa-Mawaridihi fi Kitabihi al-Isaba_ (1:394-395). The misattribution to Ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani may have happened after 1067, the date of Hajji Khalifa’s death i.e. about 200 years after Ibn Hajar’s time.
Nor is this book mentioned in al-Sakhawi’s catalogue of Ibn Hajar’s works in al-Jawahir wal-Durar. Nor do any of their contemporaries even mention it in relation to Ibn Hajar. However, this did not prevent the Javanese Shaykh Muhammad Nawawi ibn `Umar al-Jawi from writing a commentary on it titled Nasa’ih al `Ibad in the year 1311 -which is still studied in Damascus-in which he perpetuates this error, now in English translation – of all the authentic works that could have been commented or translated – wala hawla wala quwwata illa billah. Was-Salam,