Abu Rāfiʿ reports that he saw the Prophet (ṣ) calling the call to prayer (adhān) into Ḥasan’s ear promptly after Fāṭimah, the Prophet’s daughter, gave birth to him.
This hadith is transmitted by Imām Aḥmad in the Musnad (no. 23869), Abu Dāwūd in the Sunan (no. 5105), al-Tirmidhi in al-Jāmiʿ (no. 1514), Aburrazzāq in the Muṣannaf (no. 79860), al-Ṭabarāni in al-Muʿjam (no. 931), al-Ḥakim in al-Mustadrak (vol. 3, p. 179), al-Baihaqi in Sunan al-Kabīr (vol. 9, p. 305), and others with the following chain of transmission:
ʿĀṣim b. ʿUbaidullāh -> ʿUbaidullāh b. Abi Rāfiʿ -> Abu Rāfiʿ
This tradition is considered weak by hadith scholars due to its chain of narration, as it consists of ʿĀṣim b. ʿUbaidullāh. The hadith scholars criticized him and deemed him unreliable.[1] The well-known hadith scholar Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned ʿĀṣim as a weak narrator in his Rijāl work al-Majrūḥīn[2] and cited this hadith as an example of his weak hadiths.
Al-Tirmidhi’s classification of this hadith as ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ (acceptable/authentic) is questionable due to ʿĀṣim’s state. When al-Ḥākim transmitted this hadith, he claimed that this hadith was authentic, even though al-Bukhāri and Muslim omitted it in their collections. The well-known hadith scholar al-Dhahabi, who summarized al-Hakim’s work, disagreed with al-Ḥākim’s assessment due to ʿĀṣim.
A similar version of this hadith was transmitted by Ibn ʿAbbās and al-Ḥusain b. ʿAli, which have several chains of transmission and due to which Ibn al-Qayyim considered this act as recommended.[3]
Let us take a closer look at the narration of Ibn ʿAbbās:
Al-Baihaqi transmits this hadith in Shuʿab al-Īmān (no. 8255) on the authority of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAmr b. Saif, who narrated it on Manṣūr b. Ṣafiyyah, on Abu Maʿbad, who narrated it on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet (ṣ) called the call to prayer (adhān) into the ear of al-Ḥasan after his birth. He called it into his right ear and called the call to stand for prayer (iqāmah) into his left ear. However, after a closer look, it can be determined that al-Ḥasan b. Amr is unreliable. He was classified as very weak by some, while some going on to considered him a forger. Therefore, the addition of the iqāmah is extremely strange, possibly a fabrication by al-Ḥasan. In hadith scholarship, it is per consensus that hadiths cannot be strengthened with such narrators.
As for the tradition of al-Ḥusain b. ʿAli, it is mentioned by Abu Yaʿla in his Musnad (no. 6780), al-Baihaqi in the Shuaʿb al-īmān (no. 8254) on the authority of Yaḥya b. al-ʿAla al-Rāzi, on Marwān b. Sālim, on Ṭalḥa b. ʿAbdullah al-ʿUqaili- Ḥusain b. ʿAlī, that the Prophet (ṣ) said, “When a child is born and the call to prayer (adhān) is called into its right ear and the call to stand for prayer (iqāmah) is called into its left ear, it (the baby) will be protected from the harm of spirits (jinn/umm al-ṣibyān).”
This chain of narration is also a very weak one. Yaḥya b. al-ʿAla al-Rāzi and Marwān b. Sālim are both dishonest narrators.[4]
The contemporary hadith scholar al-Albani initially classified this hadith as acceptable, but later changed his mind. He initially classified this hadith as acceptable based on the above-mentioned narration of Ibn ʿAbbās. In doing so, he relied on Ibn al-Qayyim, since the Book Shuʿab al-īmān was not yet accessible. However, when Shuʿab al-īmān was printed and he was able to examine this hadith on his own, he found that it was very weak.[5]
It can be concluded that the first version of this hadith is weak, and the others are very weak if not forged. Thus, the different traditions cannot support or strengthen each other due to their very strong weaknesses, which is why this practice is a questionable act among some scholars. Other scholars considered this to be a sunnah. Imām an-Nawawi wrote, “The Sunnah is to utter the call to prayer (adhān) in the ear of the newborn, whether it is a boy or a girl, with the exact wording of the regular call to prayer. This due to the hadith of Abu Rāfiʿ […]. A group of our companions (that belong to the Shāfiʿ school of thought) said, ‘It is desirable (mustaḥabb) to utter the call to prayer into the right ear (of the newborn) and the iqāmah into the left ear.’ ”[6] Ibn Qudāma wrote in his work al-Mughni, “It is desirable for the father to utter the call to prayer into the ear of his newborn when it is born.”[7]
And Allah knows best!
[1] Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb vol. 2, p. 254
[2] Vol. 2, p. 127
[3] Tuḥfat al-Wadūd, p. 30
[4] Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, no. 7618 and no. 6570
[5] Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfa vol. 13, p. 272 f.
[6] al-Majmūʿ, vol. 9, p. 356
[7] Vol. 11, p. 120
