Satan Takes a Hair During Prayer — Is the Hadith About Ablution Doubt Authentic?
Among the attempts to ridicule the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the citation of a narration claiming that Satan disturbs a praying Muslim by pulling a hair from his body, causing him to doubt his ablution. Critics have presented this as an embarrassment to Islam. The response is straightforward: the hadith is weak and unacceptable as evidence, making the mockery built upon it entirely baseless.
The Narration in Question
“The devil comes to one of you while he is praying and takes a hair from his anus and stretches it out, and he thinks that he has broken his ablution. So he should not leave until he hears a sound or smells a smell.”
Grade: Da’if (Weak) · Sheikh Shu’ayb Al-Arna’ut — Musnad Ahmad No. 11932, Qurtuba Foundation, Cairo
The Objection
This narration — recorded in Musnad Ahmad — proves that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ attributed ridiculous and vulgar statements to the divine religion of Islam, undermining his claim to prophethood.
The Response
First: The Hadith Is Weak — We Do Not Accept It
The narration is rejected by hadith scholars due to a weak narrator in its chain. Muslims are not obligated to accept every narration found in any book of hadith — the science of rijal (narrator criticism) exists precisely to filter authentic reports from unreliable ones. This narration fails that filter.
The chain contains Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud’an — a narrator about whom the scholars of hadith criticism have spoken extensively:
[!scholar] Ibn Abi Shaybah — Questions of Ibn Abi Shaybah (1/75)
Muhammad ibn Uthman said: I asked Ali about Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud’an, and he said: He is weak according to us.
[!scholar] Al-Daraqutni — Al-Taqrib (p. 401, No. 4734)
Ali ibn Zayd is weak. He is Ali bin Zaid bin Abdullah bin Zuhair bin Abdullah bin Jadaan Al-Taimi Al-Basri — known as Ali bin Zaid bin Jadaan — a narrator of the fourth generation, died 131 AH. Verdict: Weak.
- Shu’bah: “He was a narrator — and once said: Ali told us before he became confused.”
- Ibn Uyaynah: Weakened him.
- Hammad bin Zaid: “He used to change the hadiths.”
- Al-Fallas: “Yahya Al-Qattan used to avoid narrating from Ali bin Zaid.”
- Ibn Sa’d: “He narrated many hadiths, but he is weak and cannot be relied upon.”
[!scholar] Yahya ibn Ma’in — Al-Majruhin (2/104)
Ibn Al-Mundhir — Abbas bin Muhammad — Yahya bin Ma’in:
“Ali bin Zaid bin Jud’an is nothing.”
The chain of this narration is weak due to Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud’an — rejected by Yahya ibn Ma’in, Al-Daraqutni, Ibn Sa’d, and Hammad bin Zaid among others. Once the weakness of a narration is established, no interpretation, defense, or elaboration of its content is required. The hadith is simply not accepted.
Second: Mocking the Prophet ﷺ Follows a Historical Pattern — Not a New Phenomenon
Even setting aside the weakness of the narration, the mockery and ridicule directed at the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is itself not a new phenomenon. Allah addresses this pattern directly in the Quran:
“And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy from among the criminals. And sufficient is your Lord as a Guide and a Helper.”
Every prophet faced enemies who mocked and harmed them. The Prophet Musa (AS) was accused of immaturity and physical weakness by his own people — yet Allah cleared him:
“O you who have believed, do not be like those who harmed Moses — but Allah cleared him of what they said, and he was honorable in the sight of Allah.”
“May Allah’s mercy be upon Musa — he was harmed more than this and he was patient.”
Grade: Sahih · Bukhari
The narration cited by critics is weak — rejected by Al-Arna’ut, Al-Daraqutni, Yahya ibn Ma’in, Ibn Sa’d, and the majority of hadith critics due to the weakness of Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud’an. Muslims do not accept this narration and are not required to defend its content. The mockery directed at the Prophet ﷺ on this basis is built on a narration that Islamic scholarship itself has already discarded. And the broader pattern of enemies harassing prophets is one Allah has already addressed — every prophet faced it, and Allah cleared them all.