Tie Your Camel and Put Your Trust in Allâh

Question :

We a group of students of knowledge came across in our reading the Hadith about the desert Arab who, when he went to the Prophet, said, "Should I tie it or should I trust in Allah?" The Prophet ﷺ said :
"Tie your camel and put your trust in Allah."

However, some people said that this Hadith is not authentic; please clarify for us whether it is authentic?

Answer:

All praise is for Allâh, and may peace and blessings be upon His Messenger and his family:

In his Sunan, At-Tirmithi recorded that Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "A man said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I should tie it and trust (in Allah) or should I leave it and trust (in. Allah). The Prophet ﷺ said:
"Tie it and trust (in Allah)."

Then At-Tirmithi mentioned that Yahya bin Sa'id Al-Qattan said, "This is a Munkar Hadith to me." At-Tirmithi said next, "This is Gharib from the Hadith of Anas, we are not aware of another route for it." At-Tirmithi said, "And it has similarly been related from 'Amr bin Umayyah Ad-Damari from the Prophet."

In Majma Az-Zawa'id Wa-Manba Al-Fawa'id, in the tenth volume under the title "Tie It and Trust", Al-Hafiz Al- Haythami mentioned that 'Amr bin Umayyah said : "O Messenger of Allah, should I let my mount be free and trust (in Allah)."

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
"Rather, you should tie it and trust in Allah."

Al-Haythami goes on to say, "At-Tabarani recorded it with two chains, in one of them is 'Amr bin 'Abdullah bin Umayyah Ad- Damari, whom I do not know, yet the rest of the narrators are trustworthy."

In the tenth volume as well, but under the title "Trust and Tie It and Trust", Al-Haythami mentioned that 'Amr bin Umayyah Ad-Damari said, "O Messenger of Allah, should I let my mount be unrestrained and trust (in Allah)?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
"Rather, you should tie it and trust (in Allah)."

Al-Haythami said, "At-Tabarani recorded it with different chains, and the narrators of one of the chains are all narrators of the Sahih (either Al-Bukhari or Muslim) except for Yaqub bin 'Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Umayyah, yet he is trustworthy."

Under the letter Hamza of his book Al-Jami' As-Saghir, As-Suyuti said that At-Tirmithi related the Hadith and put a sign to indicate that the Hadith is weak.

To summarize, some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the Hadith; however, its meaning is correct because from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, we are encouraged to plan and take the steps necessary to reach our goals and to trust in Allâh Almighty. So whoever takes the physical steps necessary to attain his goal, believing and trusting in his efforts only without trusting in Allah Almighty, then he is a committing Shirk. And he is both ignorant and negligent who trusts in Allâh but physically and practically avoids doing what he needs to do to attain his goals. The Shari'ah demands from us that we do both. May Allah send peace and blessings upon Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.