‘Umar ibn Abd Al-‘Azeez preferring to feed people than to make a new cover for the Ka‘bah

12-3-2015 | IslamWeb

Question:

asalamu alakium dear Shiekh I have a question how authentic is the Hadith you mentioned in Fatwa no: 281746
The story of ‘Umar ibn Abd Al-‘Azeez preferring to feed people than to make a new cover for the Ka‘bah
my second question is what is the level of the chain id really appreciate an answer in this matter thank you jazakallahu khyran

---

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. 

Abu Nu‘aym cited this report in his book Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’. We did not find any Hadeeth scholar who declared it as either weak or authentic. Ibn Taymiyyah said about this book, Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’: "It is one of the finest books on the biographies of the ascetics, and the reports cited in it are more authentic than those cited in Al-Qushayri's Risaalah, the Hadeeth collections of his Shaykh Abu ‘Abd Ar-Rahmaan As-Sulami, Manaaqib Al-Abraar by Ibn Khamees, and other books. Abu Nu‘aym was more knowledgeable about Hadeeth sciences and narrated many Ahaadeeth and reports and is considered a more accurate narrator than those authors. However, the reports and Ahaadeeth cited in Az-Zuhd by Imaam Ahmad and Az-Zuhd by Ibn Al-Mubaarak and similar books are more authentic than those cited in Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’. It should be noted, however, that these books and others inevitably include weak Ahaadeeth and reports, and even some Baatil (false) reports, and Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’ is no exception. However, Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’ contains fewer false and weak reports compared to other books. The Hadeeth collections of As-Sulami, Al-Qushayri's Risaalah, Manaaqib Al-Abraar and the like contain more false Ahaadeeth and reports than the Hadeeth collections of Abu Nu‘aym. Abu Al-Faraj ibn Al-Jawzi's book Safwat As-Safwah quotes from the same sources as Hilyat Al-Awliyaa’, and the contents of the two books are mostly authentic. Nevertheless, they include false Ahaadeeth and reports. "

We do not understand what you mean by "level of the chain". If it is a repeated question about the degree of authenticity of the Hadeeth, then we have already clarified the answer above.

Allaah Knows best.