❀ Shar‘i Ruling on the Supplication for Ringing of the Ear ❀
Taken from: Fatāwā al-Dīn al-Khāliṣ, Vol. 1, p. 182
❖ Question:
Is there any established Sunnah regarding a duʿāʾ (supplication) when the ear rings?
❖ Answer:
Praise be to Allah, and blessings and peace be upon His Messenger. To proceed:
✿ Reported Narration
Ibn al-Sunnī narrated in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (p. 87, ḥadīth 166) from the grandfather of ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUbaydullāh that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“When someone’s ear rings, he should remember me, send blessings upon me, and say:
‘Dhakarallāhu bikhayr man dhakaranī’
(May Allah mention in goodness the one who remembered me).”
This narration is also mentioned by Imām Nawawī رحمه الله in al-Adhkār (p. 271).
✿ Evaluation of the Chain of Narration
◈ The chain includes Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdillāh, who is a weak narrator, and some of his narrations are munkar (rejected).
◈ Al-Dhahabī in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (4/157) classified this narration as one of his unacceptable reports.
◈ This narration is also reported by al-Ṭabarānī, al-Bazzār, al-Kharā’iṭī, and Ibn ʿAdī, all through weak chains.
◈ Though al-Haythamī in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (10/138) deemed the Ṭabarānī version ḥasan, the majority of hadith scholars do not accept its reliability.
◈ Al-Sakhāwī mentions in Jalāʾ al-Afhām (p. 240) that this narration has also been recorded by Ibn ʿAdī, Ibn al-Sunnī, al-Kharā’iṭī, Ibn ʿĀṣim, Abū Mūsā al-Madāʾinī, and Ibn Shakwāl, but he confirms that the chain is weak.
◈ Ibn Khuzaymah included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, but he himself labeled the narration as gharīb (unusual/isolated) and uncertain in authenticity.
◈ Similar criticism is noted in al-Qawl al-Badīʿ (p. 224).
✔ Conclusion
➊ There is no authentic or ḥasan ḥadīth regarding a specific supplication when the ear rings.
➋ The narration in question is weak in chain, and hence not obligatory to act upon.
➌ It is preferable to engage in the general and well-established Sunnah of sending ṣalāh and salām (durūd) upon the Prophet ﷺ, rather than relying on unverified duʿās.
وَاللهُ أَعْلَمُ بِالصَّوَابِ
And Allah knows best what is correct.
