Soundness of the report about the supplication that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) offered for Abu Hurayrah and his mother (may Allah be pleased with them both)

Praise
be to Allah

Firstly: 

The supplication of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) for Abu Hurayrah and his mother (may Allah be pleased with them
both) is proven in the hadith narrated by Imam Muslim (2491) via ‘Umar ibn
Yoonus, from ‘Ikrimah ibn ‘Ammaar, from Abu Katheer Yazeed ibn ‘Abd
ar-Rahmaan, from Abu Hurayrah, in which it says that the Prophet (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) offered supplication for his mother and
said: “O Allah, guide the mother of Umm Hurayrah.” 

Then after his mother became Muslim, Abu Hurayrah said: O
Messenger of Allah, pray to Allah to make me and my mother beloved to His
believing slaves, and to make them beloved to us. The Messenger of Allah
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “O Allah, make this slave
of Yours – meaning Abu Hurayrah – and his mother beloved to Your believing
slaves, and make the believers beloved to them.” 

Abu Hurayrah said: There is no believer created who hears of
me or sees me, but he loves me. 

This is a saheeh hadith; the men of its isnaad are thiqaat
and there is no flaw in it. It was narrated by Imam Muslim in his Saheeh,
which is the soundest of the books of Sunnah after Saheeh al-Bukhaari. 

Al-Haafiz Ibn Katheer (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
This hadith is one of the signs of Prophethood, because Abu Hurayrah is
beloved to all people.

End quote from al-Bidaayah wa’n-Nihaayah (11/366). 

This hadith is an ahaad hadith. It is not mutawaatir; rather
it was narrated only by Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him). 

The fact that he is the only one who narrated this hadith
does not matter, because it is not one of the conditions of a hadith being
saheeh that it should be narrated by two or more narrators. Rather there are
many saheeh ghareeb hadiths, the most well-known of which is the hadith
“Actions are but by intentions.” It was narrated only by ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
(may Allah be pleased with him) and is known only from his narration. 

For more details on this issue, please see Nuzhat an-Nadr
by Ibn Hajar (p. 48); Tawdeeh al-Afkaar by as-San‘aani (1/28); and
al-Anwaar al-Kaashifah by al-Mu‘allami al-Yamaani (p. 65). 

Secondly: 

Some of the Shi‘ah cast aspersions on this hadith on the
grounds of a flimsy specious argument, which is that if the hadith were
saheeh, the members of the Prophet’s household would have loved Abu
Hurayrah! 

‘Abd al-Husayn Sharaf ad-Deen al-Moosawi said in his book
Abu Hurayrah (p. 158):

“This hadith is dubious for several reasons, one of which is
that it was not narrated from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) except by Abu Hurayrah, so it is similar to all other
reports that were narrated by him only. 

“… If what Abu Hurayrah claimed is true about the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) offering supplication for him and
his mother, that they would be beloved to the believers and the believers
would be beloved to them, then the members of the Prophet’s family, the
household among whom the message was revealed, would have loved him, for
they are the leaders of the believers and of the followers of this religion.
So how come their twelve imams and all their scholars look down at him and
dismiss his hadith, and do not pay attention to anything that was narrated
only by him? Ameer al-Mu’mineen (peace be upon him) said: Indeed the most
mendacious of the people – or the most mendacious of the living – who tells
the most lies against the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) is Abu Hurayrah ad-Dawsi…” 

The response to that is to note that the hatred of the
ordinary Shi‘ah towards Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him),
despite the fact that this hadith is proven, is something that casts
aspersions upon them, not upon Abu Hurayrah or his hadith, and indicates
that the faith of such people who cast such aspersions is unsound. 

As for the claim that the imams of Ahl al-Bayt (the Prophet’s
family) rejected the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah and did not narrate from him,
and that ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allah be pleased with him) regarded him as
a liar – this is an obvious lie. 

Professor ‘Abd al-Mun‘im Saalih included in his book Difaa‘
‘an Abi Hurayrah a chapter in which he discussed the “narrations  of the
sons, troops, companions and freed slaves of ‘Ali, and the majority of the
early Shi‘ah, from Abu Hurayrah” (p. 175-208). 

He mentioned reports from Zayn al-‘Aabideen, Muhammad al-Baaqir,
Ja‘far as-Saadiq, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah and his son, and others, all of
whom confirmed that what ‘Abd al-Husayn Sharaf ad-Deen al-Moosawi said was
false, and that this accusation (against Abu Hurayrah) that is attributed to
‘Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) is not true, and that neither his sons,
his freed slaves nor his troops knew of it. Those who narrated from him
never heard it and neither did the prominent figures of the first generation
among the Shi‘ah. If this saying was true, it would have been well-known
among them and they would have refrained from narrating from Abu Hurayrah!
It will suffice us here to quote one report, that was narrated by al-Bukhaari
in his Saheeh and also by Muslim (1509) via ‘Aasim ibn Muhammad, who
said: Waaqid ibn Muhammad told me: Sa‘eed ibn Marjaanah, the companion of
‘Ali ibn Husayn, told me: Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said
to me: The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever
frees a believing slave, Allah will ransom each of his limbs from the Fire
for each of (the slave’s) limbs.” 

Sa‘eed ibn Marjaanah said: I went to ‘Ali ibn Husayn and told
him about this, and ‘Ali ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) went
straight to a slave of his, for whom ‘Abdullah ibn Ja‘far had offered him
ten thousand dirhams or a thousand dinars, and freed him. 

This ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn (Zayn al-‘Aabideen) – may Allah have
mercy on him – hastened to believe Abu Hurayrah and acted upon what he
narrated without hesitation. In face he also narrated this hadith after
that, from Sa‘eed ibn Marjaanah, from Abu Hurayrah, as it says in Saheeh
al-Bukhaari (6715) and Muslim (1509). 

We call upon Allah, may He be exalted, to witness that we
love Abu Hurayrah and his mother, and all the companions of the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), and we ask Him, may He be
exalted, to gather us with them (on the Day of Resurrection). 

And Allah knows best.