Hadeeth about Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, and 'Ali eating bird is weak

9-1-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. Is this hadith authentic? Anas Ibn Malik narrated, “There was a bird with the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, so he supplicated, O Allaah, bring me the most beloved creation to you to eat this bird with me.' So 'Ali, may Allaah be pleased with him, came and ate the bird with him.” At-Tirmidhi and others

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The hadeeth that you mentioned, dear brother, was reported by At-Tirmithi and narrated by Anas ibn Maalik, may Allah be pleased with him, who said, “There was a bird [cooked as food] with the Prophet so he said, 'O Allah, send to me the most beloved of Your Creatures to eat this bird with me.' So 'Ali came and ate with him.”

At-Tirmithi, after he reported this hadeeth, said, "This is a strange hadeeth; we do not know it from the hadeeth of As-Suddi except with this wording.”

The chain of narrators of this hadeeth includes a narrator whose name was "Sufyaan ibn Wakee’". Imaam Al-Bukhari said about him, “They (scholars) doubt him...”

Abu Zur’ah said about him, “He is accused of lying.”

The hadeeth was reported with different chains of narrators, all have weak narrators and a confused wording. It is for this reason that the scholars classified this hadeeth as weak.

Indeed, Shaykh Al-Albaani profusely elaborated about it while clarifying that it is weak in As-Silsilah Adh-Dha’eefah (no. 6575).

Allah knows best.