Wabisa ibn Ma'bad

وابصة بن معبد

A Companion who came to the Prophet resolved to leave nothing of righteousness and sin unasked, and received 'consult your own soul' with three fingers poked into his chest — the second half of the twenty-seventh hadith of al-Nawawi's Forty; transmitted by Ahmad and al-Darimi and called a hasan hadith by al-Nawawi, though Ibn Rajab finds its circulated route doubly defective — a gap between al-Zubayr ibn Abd al-Salam and Ayyub, and al-Zubayr's own weakness — while sound paths from Abu Umama and Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani corroborate it.

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Righteousness (birr)

In the twenty-seventh hadith of the Forty, righteousness (birr) and sin (ithm) are defined through conscience and character together: in al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an's report in Muslim (2553), 'righteousness is good character, and sin is what wavers in your soul and you dislike for people to see it' — righteousness reduced to sheer character, and sin marked by inner unease joined to dislike of public exposure; and in Wabisa ibn Ma'bad's report in Ahmad and al-Darimi, the Prophet commanded 'consult your own soul' while poking his chest with three fingers: righteousness is what the heart and soul are at peace with, and sin is what wavers in the heart and hesitates in the breast even if people give verdict upon verdict — inner rest and expansiveness made the sign of righteousness, and inner hesitation the sign of sin even against the muftis' rulings; Abu Umama's route 'if something wavers in your breast, leave it' and Abu Tha'laba al-Khushani's 'righteousness is what the soul rests in and the heart is at peace with … even if the muftis give you verdicts' corroborate it, both chains sound for Ibn Rajab.

Wabisa ibn Ma'bad

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Righteousness (birr)