He said: It has been said that a person's saying "All praise is due to Allah" is praise of Allah by His Most Beautiful Names and Attributes, whereas his saying "Thanks be to Allah" is praise of Him for His blessings and favors.
And it has been narrated from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār that he said: "'All praise is due to Allah' is praise of Allah." But it was not clarified in the narration from him which of the two meanings of praise we mentioned that was.
153 - Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Ṣadafī narrated to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad narrated to me, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from his father, who said: Al-Salūlī informed me, from Kaʿb, who said: "Whoever says 'All praise is due to Allah,' that is praise of Allah." (1)
154 - ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Kharrāz narrated to me, saying: Muslim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jarmī narrated to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab al-Qurqusānī narrated to us, from Mubārak ibn Faḍāla, from al-Ḥasan, from al-Aswad ibn Sarīʿ: That the Prophet—peace and blessings of God be upon him—said: "There is nothing to which praise is more beloved than Allah Almighty, and for that reason He praised Himself, saying: 'All praise is due to Allah.'" (2)
Notes
- (1) Report 153: This chain of transmission is authentic (Sahih); yet whether it is authentic or weak, it has no value, since it terminates at Kaʿb al-Aḥbār. The words of Kaʿb have never been an authoritative proof in Tafsir or otherwise. "Al-Ṣadafī" is pronounced with an unpointed ṣād and dāl with a fatḥa, a nisba to "Ṣadaf" with a fatḥa on the ṣād and a kasra on the dāl, which is a tribe from Ḥimyar that settled in Egypt. "Al-Salūlī" is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḍamra al-Salūlī, a trustworthy Successor (Tabi'i).
This report from Kaʿb was mentioned by Ibn Kathīr (1/43) without a chain of transmission or attribution. Al-Suyūṭī mentioned it (1/11) and attributed it to al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim.
- (2) Hadith 154: Its chain of transmission is authentic (Sahih). ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdawayh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Kharrāz, the sheikh of al-Ṭabarī: trustworthy, given a biography in Tārīkh Baghdād (11/374–375). "Al-Kharrāz" is established in al-Ṭabarī with a khāʾ and rāʾ and ending with a zāy. In Tārīkh Baghdād, it is "al-Khazzāz" with two zāys, and we were unable to prefer one over the other. Muslim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jarmī: given a biography in Lisān al-Mīzān (6/32) under the name "Muslim ibn Abī Muslim," omitting his father's name, but he is the same person. Al-Khaṭīb gave his biography in Tārīkh Baghdād (13/100), saying: "Muslim ibn Abī Muslim al-Jarmī, and he is Muslim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān," and he said: "He was trustworthy; he settled in Tarsus and died there." "Al-Jarmī" was written in the original manuscripts of al-Ṭabarī and Lisān al-Mīzān as "al-Ḥaramī" without dots. However, they did not explicitly specify its vocalization. Their custom in such cases is to specify the vocalization of the rare and anomalous, and to leave the common form that follows the standard vocalization; the standard for this written form is "al-Jarmī" with a jīm, and thus it was written in Tārīkh Baghdād, so based on this or that, we preferred it. "Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab al-Qarqasānī" and "Mubārak ibn Faḍāla": there is disagreement regarding them. We preferred declaring them trustworthy in the commentary on al-Musnad: the first in 3048, and the second in 521. "Al-Ḥasan": he is al-Baṣrī, and we established in the commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, under Hadith 132, that he heard from al-Aswad ibn Sarīʿ.
Al-Suyūṭī mentioned this hadith in al-Durr al-Manthūr (1/12) from the Tafsir of al-Ṭabarī. Aḥmad narrated it in al-Musnad with its meaning concisely (15650; 3/435 Ḥalabī) on the authority of Rawḥ ibn ʿUbāda, from ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīla, from al-Ḥasan, from al-Aswad ibn Sarīʿ, who said: "I said: 'O Messenger of Allah, shall I not recite to you praises with which I praised my Lord?' He said: 'Indeed, your Lord loves praise.'" This is an authentic chain of transmission, all of its narrators being trustworthy and reliable. Ibn Kathīr mentioned it in the Tafsir (1/43) from . Likewise, al-Suyūṭī mentioned it and attributed it also to al-Nasāʾī, al-Ḥākim, and others.
Aḥmad also narrated it (15654), as did al-Bukhārī in (51), similarly, in a detailed story, from the narration of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakra from al-Aswad ibn Sarīʿ.
Its meaning is established and authentic, from the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd in (4153): "There is no one more protective of honor than Allah, and for that reason He prohibited indecencies, both open and hidden; and there is no one to whom praise is more beloved than Allah, and for that reason He praised Himself." It was also narrated by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and others.
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