English Translation

Isma'il told us, Yunus told us, from Humayd ibn Hilal, from Hissan ibn al-Kahin, who said: I entered the congregational mosque in Basra and sat by an elderly man with white hair and beard. He said: Mu'adh ibn Jabal told me, from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that he said: There is no soul that dies while bearing witness that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah — that testimony returning to a sincere heart — except that Allah forgives it. I said to him: Did you hear this from Mu'adh yourself? The people seemed to reproach me for it. He said: Do not reproach him nor scold him, leave him be. Yes, I heard that from Mu'adh, relating it from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. (Isma'il said once: transmitting it from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.) He said: I said to some of them: Who is this? He said: This is Abd al-Rahman ibn Samurah. Abd al-A'la told us, from Yunus, from Humayd ibn Hilal, from Hissan ibn al-Kahin — whose father had been a soothsayer in pre-Islamic times — who said: I entered the mosque during the governorship of Uthman ibn Affan, and there was an elderly man with white hair and beard narrating from Mu'adh, from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he mentioned the hadith.