Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 1821
حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بِشْرٍ، بَكْرُ بْنُ خَلَفٍ حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ الْحَمِيدِ بْنِ جَعْفَرٍ، حَدَّثَنِي صَالِحُ بْنُ أَبِي عَرِيبٍ، عَنْ كَثِيرِ بْنِ مُرَّةَ الْحَضْرَمِيِّ، عَنْ عَوْفِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ الأَشْجَعِيِّ، قَالَ خَرَجَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ وَقَدْ عَلَّقَ رَجُلٌ قِنَاءً أَوْ قِنْوًا وَبِيَدِهِ عَصًا فَجَعَلَ يَطْعَنُ بِذَلِكَ يُدَقْدِقُ فِي ذَلِكَ الْقِنْوِ وَيَقُولُ " لَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّ هَذِهِ الصَّدَقَةِ تَصَدَّقَ بِأَطْيَبَ مِنْهَا إِنَّ رَبَّ هَذِهِ الصَّدَقَةِ يَأْكُلُ الْحَشَفَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Abu Bishr Bakr ibn Khalaf narrated to us; Yahya ibn Sa‘id narrated to us, from Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja‘far; Salih ibn Abi Arib narrated to me, from Kathir ibn Murrah al-Hadrami, from Awf ibn Malik al-Ashja‘i, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out while a man had hung up a bunch of dates—or a date cluster—and he had a stick in his hand. He began prodding it with the stick, shaking the cluster, and saying: ‘If the owner of this charity had wished, he could have given something better than it. The owner of this charity will eat inferior dates on the Day of Resurrection.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The source gives two terms for the date cluster and calls the low-grade dates hashaf; the translation preserves the image without explaining its consequence.
قَالَ خَرَجَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ وَقَدْ عَلَّقَ رَجُلٌ قِنَاءً أَوْ قِنْوًا وَبِيَدِهِ عَصًا فَجَعَلَ يَطْعَنُ بِذَلِكَ يُدَقْدِقُ فِي ذَلِكَ الْقِنْوِ وَيَقُولُ " لَوْ شَاءَ رَبُّ هَذِهِ الصَّدَقَةِ تَصَدَّقَ بِأَطْيَبَ مِنْهَا إِنَّ رَبَّ هَذِهِ الصَّدَقَةِ يَأْكُلُ الْحَشَفَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ " .
The warning that the owner of the charity ‘will eat hashaf’ on the Day of Resurrection is stated without explaining whether it is literal or figurative.
Should ‘eat inferior dates’ remain literal, or is a figurative consequence intended?