Storytelling

Sayyiduna Khabbab (may Allah be pleased with him) reports this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "The Children of Israel fell into ruin when they began telling stories."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its narrators have been declared trustworthy. There is disagreement about the narrator al-Ajlah al-Kindi, but most have declared him trustworthy.

It is reported about al-Harith bin Mu'awiyah that he rode to Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) to ask him about three things. The narrator says: When he arrived in Madinah, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked him: "What has brought you here?" He replied: "To ask you about three things." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "What are they?" Al-Harith said: "Sometimes a woman and I are in a narrow place and the time for prayer comes. If she and I both pray, she is right beside me, and if she prays behind me, she ends up outside the building." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Put a cloth as a screen between yourself and her; then, if you wish, she may stand beside you and pray." Al-Harith asked: "The two rak'ahs after Asr (I wish to ask about them)." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade me from them." (The narrator asked:) "Telling stories (I wish to ask about that)." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "As you wish!" (meaning you may tell stories); it was as though he disliked forbidding him. Al-Harith said: "I had intended to follow your word." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I fear for you that when you tell stories (that is, preach), you will think yourself great; then you will tell stories again and think yourself (even) higher, until you imagine that you are as far above those people as the Pleiades are high, and then on the Day of Resurrection Allah Almighty will place you beneath their feet in that same measure."
Ahmad recorded it. Ibn Hibban declared the narrator al-Harith bin Mu'awiyah al-Kindi trustworthy, and more than one person narrated from him; the remaining narrators of this report are among the narrators of the Sahih.

Abu Salih Sa'id bin Abd al-Rahman al-Ghifari narrates: Salim bin Itr al-Tujibi was standing and preaching to the people, so Sayyiduna Silah bin al-Harith al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him), who was a Companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), said: "By Allah! We (that is, the common people of our time) did not abandon the covenant of our Prophet, nor did we violate the rights of kinship, until you and your companions began standing up among us (that is, when people like you began preaching, the common people fell into corruption)."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain is hasan (good).

Amr bin Zurarah narrates: I was preaching when Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) came and stood by me and said: "O Amr, you have adopted a misguided innovation? Or do you consider yourself more rightly guided than Sayyiduna Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions?" (Amr says:) I saw the people disperse from around me, until I saw that there was not a single person left in my place.
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir. It has two chains, one of which has narrators who are the narrators of the Sahih; al-Aswad narrated it from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him).

Yahya al-Bakka' narrates: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) saw a preacher in al-Masjid al-Haram, and his son was with him. His son asked him: "What is this (preacher) talking about?" Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "He is saying: 'Recognise me! Recognise me!'"
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain contains the narrator Yahya al-Bakka', who is matruk (abandoned).

Amr bin Dinar narrates: Sayyiduna Tamim al-Dari (may Allah be pleased with him) asked Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) for permission to preach, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) refused to permit him. He asked for permission again, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) refused to permit him. He asked for permission again, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "If you wish." Then he gestured with his hand, indicating that (he would be) slaughtered.
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; the narrators of this report are the narrators of the "Sahih", except that Amr bin Dinar did not hear from Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him).

Al-Sa'ib bin Yazid narrates: In the blessed time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and in the caliphate of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him), storytelling was not practised. It was begun by Sayyiduna Tamim al-Dari (may Allah be pleased with him); he asked Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) for permission to stand and tell stories before the people, and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) gave him permission.
Ahmad (in his Musnad) and Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Baqiyyah bin al-Walid, who is thiqah (trustworthy) but a mudallis (one who conceals defects in the chain).

Abd al-Jabbar al-Khawlani narrates: One of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered the mosque, and Ka'b was there telling stories. That Companion asked: "Who is this?" The people said: "This is Ka'b, telling stories." The Companion said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah say: 'No one should tell stories except a ruler, or one appointed (that is, one officially assigned to this task), or an arrogant person.'" This reached Ka'b, and after that he was never seen telling stories.
Ahmad recorded it; its chain is hasan (good).

Sayyiduna Awf bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Only a ruler, or one appointed, or one who affects (what is beyond him) will tell stories." (Allamah Haythami says:) I say: Abu Dawud recorded this report, but he did not narrate the words: "or one who affects (what is beyond him)."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator Zirak Abu al-Abbas al-Razi, and I have not seen anyone give his biography.

Sayyiduna Ka'b bin Iyad (may Allah be pleased with him) reports this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Storytellers will be of three kinds: a ruler, or one appointed, or an arrogant person."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain contains the narrator Abdullah bin Yahya al-Iskandarani, and I have not seen anyone give his biography.

Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) reports this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Only a ruler, or one appointed, or one who affects (what is beyond him) will tell stories."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain is hasan (good).

Sayyiduna Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: One day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to a storyteller who was narrating something. (On seeing the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), that man stopped,) and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Tell your story! That I should sit from the early morning until the sun rises is dearer to me than freeing four slaves, and that I should sit from after Asr until the sun sets is dearer to me than freeing four slaves."
Ahmad (in his Musnad) and Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir recorded it, except that Tabarani's wording is: "Tell your story! That I should sit here from the time you pray the morning prayer until the sun shines (is dearer to me)," and then he mentioned the rest of the hadith. Its narrators have been declared trustworthy, except that its chain mentions that Abu al-Ja'd narrated it from Sayyiduna Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him); if he is al-Ghatafani, then he is one of the narrators of the Sahih, and if he is someone else, then I do not know him.

It is reported from one of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with him) who were among the people of Badr that he heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "For me to sit in a gathering like this is dearer to me than freeing four slaves." The narrator Shu'bah says: I asked: "Which gathering did the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mean?" He replied: "(It was a gathering of) storytelling (that is, preaching)."
Ahmad recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Kurdus bin Qays, whom Ibn Hibban declared trustworthy, and its remaining narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Kurdus bin Amr narrates: I heard one of the Companions who were among the people of Badr narrate (the narrator Shu'bah says: I think that Companion was Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him)); he narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That I should explain the mufassal in detail is dearer to me than so many things." Shu'bah says: I asked (my teacher) Abd al-Malik: "Which mufassal?" He replied: "Stories."
Al-Bazzar recorded it. Ibn Hibban declared the narrator Kurdus trustworthy, and Abu Hatim said: "There is room for consideration regarding him." The remaining narrators of this report are the narrators of the Sahih.

The Abadilah, namely Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin al-Zubayr and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them), narrate that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The storyteller awaits (Allah's) displeasure, the listener awaits mercy, the trader awaits provision, and the hoarder awaits the curse. As for the wailing woman and all the women gathered around her, upon them is the curse of Allah Almighty, of the angels and of all mankind."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain contains the narrator Bishr bin Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari, who narrated it from Abdullah bin Mujahid bin Jabr, and I have not seen anyone mention either of them.

Imam al-Sha'bi narrates: Sayyidah Aishah Siddiqah (may Allah be pleased with her) said to Ibn Abi al-Sa'ib, the preacher of the people of Madinah: "(There are) three things: either you obey me regarding them, or I will contend with you." He said: "What are those things? O Mother of the Believers, I will follow you." Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "Avoid rhymed phrases when making supplication, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions did not do that. Preach to the people once a week; if you do not accept that, then twice, and if you do not accept even that, then three times. Do not recite this Book to the people with melodious intonation (lahn). And let me not find you coming to people while they are talking among themselves and cutting off their conversation; rather, leave them as they are, and when they ask you about it and request it of you, then speak to them."
Ahmad recorded it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih; Abu Ya'la recorded it similarly.

Sayyiduna al-Miqdam bin Ma'dikarib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When you talk to people, do not talk to them about what alarms them and weighs heavily upon them."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator al-Walid bin Kamil. Imam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "He narrated strange reports," and Ibn Hibban and Abu Hatim declared him trustworthy.

Al-A'mash narrates: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) passed by a man who was admonishing and advising some people, and Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O you who give advice! Do not make people despair!"
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih, but al-A'mash did not live in the time of Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Do not make people weary, or they will grow weary of admonition."
Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir; its chain is sahih (authentic).