Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 17651

Ibn Ghanm states: When Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) and I entered the mosque of al-Jabiyah, we found Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him). He took my right hand with his left hand and the left hand of Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) with his right hand, and then he went out walking between the two of us. We were conversing privately, and Allah knows best what we were conversing about. Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) said: If the life of one of you, or of both of you, is prolonged, you will soon see a man from the middle rank of the Muslims (thabaj, that is, the middle) who has recited the Qur'an according to the tongue of Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), repeated it over and over, held its lawful to be lawful, held its unlawful to be unlawful and stopped at its stations; or who has recited it from the tongue of his brother as a recitation according to the tongue of Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), then repeated it over and over, held its lawful to be lawful, held its unlawful to be unlawful and stopped at its stations, yet his worth among you will be no more than the worth of the head of a dead donkey. The narrator states: While we were in this state, Sayyiduna Shaddad bin Aws (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Awf bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) came to us and both sat down with him. Sayyiduna Shaddad (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O people! What I fear most for you is what I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Hidden desire and shirk." Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Allah, forgive! Did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) not tell us: "that Satan has despaired of being worshipped in the Arabian Peninsula"? As for hidden desire, we already know it: it is the desires of this world, that is, its women and its desires. So, O Shaddad, what is this shirk with which you are frightening us? Sayyiduna Shaddad (may Allah be pleased with him) said: What do you think, if you were to see a man praying for the sake of another man, or fasting for the sake of another man, or giving charity for his sake, would you consider that he has committed shirk? They replied: Yes, by Allah! Whoever prays for the sake of a man, or fasts for his sake, or gives charity for his sake, has committed shirk. Sayyiduna Shaddad (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever prays to show off has committed shirk, whoever fasts to show off has committed shirk, and whoever gives charity to show off has committed shirk." At this, Sayyiduna Awf bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Will Allah Almighty not turn to that part of the whole deed by which His pleasure was sought, accept what was purely for Him, and leave what had shirk in it? At this, Sayyiduna Shaddad (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Allah Almighty said: I am the best of sharers for whoever associates partners with Me. Whoever associates anything with Me as a partner, his entire deed, whether little or much, will be for the partner whom he associated, and I am free of need of it." (Allamah al-Haythami says:) I say: Ibn Majah recorded a portion of it.
Ahmad recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Shahr bin Hawshab, whom Ahmad and others declared da'if (weak), and more than one declared him da'if; the rest of its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).