Classical Sunni sources preserve a report that a female slave of Abu Muslim al-Khawlani may Allah have mercy on him confessed that she had repeatedly put poison in his food without seeing apparent harm. Al-Lalaka'i preserves both a brief and a fuller version, and the fuller route attributes to Abu Muslim a specific invocation before eating. Ibn Asakir preserves a parallel form, but the important lower transmission still runs through al-Sari ibn Yahya from Sulayman al-Taymi to Abu Muslim. Modern isnad review notes that Sulayman al-Taymi is not established as having met Abu Muslim and grades the report weak because of disconnection.
Al-Lalaka'i also preserves a fuller version of the same basic event. In that form, the woman says that she had continued placing poison in his food for a period of time without seeing harm. Her motive is described differently: she says that she was a young slave kept near Abu Muslim while he neither took her to his bed nor sold her. These two motive explanations belong to different route forms and should not be merged into one reconstructed confession.
The fuller report also attributes to Abu Muslim an invocation before eating:
In the name of Allah, the best of names; with His name no illness causes harm, Lord of the earth and Lord of the heaven
“In the name of Allah, the best of names, with whose name no illness causes harm; Lord of the earth and Lord of the heaven.”
Because Task 1 verified this wording inside the fuller route, it may be preserved as the report’s own text. It should not, however, be promoted into a medically proven antidote or a general safety formula for poison.
Ibn Asakir preserves a parallel version through Ayyub ibn Suwayd, al-Sari ibn Yahya, and Sulayman al-Taymi from Abu Muslim. The major source problem remains below those upper transmitters: Sulayman al-Taymi is not established as having met or narrated from Abu Muslim al-Khawlani. The checked source-critical assessment therefore concludes that the report is weak because its chain is disconnected.
The safest conclusion is that classical Sunni literature genuinely preserves a poison-in-food karamah report associated with Abu Muslim, including a route-specific invocation before eating. The report’s exact extraordinary outcome remains weakly authenticated, so it should be presented only as a low-confidence reported karamah requiring editorial review. It must not be used to suggest that poison ingestion is safe, repeatable, medically protected, or something that should ever be tested in practice.
Conclusion
Classical Sunni sources preserve a report that Abu Muslim al-Khawlani ate food said to have been poisoned without apparent harm, and a fuller route preserves an invocation before eating. Because the chain is disconnected, the event should remain a low-confidence reported karamah and never be treated as evidence that poison is safe or that the invocation functions as a medical antidote.