Hadeeth about sea asking Allaah's permission to drown son of Adam

15-2-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu, Shaykh. Can you please mention the grading of the following hadih:
“Everyday, the ocean says to its Lord, 'O Allaah, give me permission to drown the son of Adam, for he eats Your provision and worships other than You.' Likewise, everyday, the earth says to its Lord, 'O Allaah, give me permission to swallow the son of Adam, for he eats Your provision and worships other than You,' and the skies also say, 'O Allaah give me permission to crush the son of Adam, for he eats Your provision and worships other than you.' Then Allaah replies to all of them, everyday, 'Let them be! For if you have created them, you would have mercy on them.'”
May Allaah reward you, Shaykh.

---

Answer:

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

We have not come across this hadeeth, with the wording that you mentioned, in the resource reference books that we have at hand. However, the Musnad of Imaam Ahmad includes the following hadeeth:

“From Yazeed, from Al-‘Awwaam, from an old man who was stationed on the coast, who said, 'I met Abu Saalih, the servant of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, who said, '‘Umar ibn Al-Khataab narrated to us that the Messenger of Allah said, 'There is no night except that the sea looks three times at the earth, asking Allah's permission to flow on them (to drown children of Aadam [Adam]), and Allah Almighty prevents it from doing so.'''”

Shaykh Ahmad Shaakir when reviewing the Musnad of Imaam Ahmad, said, “Its chain of narrators is weak) because the old man from whom Al-‘Awwaam ibn Hawshab narrated is unknown, and Abu Saalih, the servant of Umar, is also unknown.”

Al-Arna’oot said the same about this hadeeth.

Allah knows best.