Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 3766
حَدَّثَنَا هِشَامُ بْنُ عَمَّارٍ، حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سُلَيْمٍ الطَّائِفِيُّ، حَدَّثَنَا ابْنُ جُرَيْجٍ، عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ أَبِي الْحَسَنِ، عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عَفَّانَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ رَأَى رَجُلاً وَرَاءَ حَمَامَةٍ فَقَالَ " شَيْطَانٌ يَتْبَعُ شَيْطَانَةً " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
It was narrated from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw a man following a pigeon and said, ‘A male devil following a female devil.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The source wording literally places the man behind the pigeon; ‘following’ conveys the relation in context and matches the parallel wording in the preceding report.