To justify acting on or disseminating patently unreliable Hadiths of exhortation and warning, the ulama often cited a Hadith in which the Prophet promises,‘Whoever comes across a report from God (and his Prophet) about the virtue of some act and then acts on it, believing it and hoping for that reward, God will grant him the reward even if the report was not true.’ Ironically, this Hadith itself was of dubious origin.30
