Muslim1.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “Those versed in hadith agree that these two versions—meaning al-Tirmidhī’s version through al-Walīd and Ibn Mājah’s through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muhammad—are not the words of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Rather, each consists of words spoken by some of the early generations”2.

He also said that no authentic hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, specifies which names constitute the ninety-nine. The best-known report concerning them is the hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhī, which al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated from Shuʿayb ibn Abī Hamza. The masters of hadith say that this addition was compiled by al-Walīd ibn Muslim from his teachers among the hadith scholars. There is a second, weaker hadith concerning them, narrated by Ibn Mājah. Other enumerations besides these two versions have also been transmitted, compiled by some of the early generations3.

Ibn Kathīr, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The view relied upon by a number of masters of hadith is that the list of names in this hadith—meaning al-Walīd’s hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhī—is an interpolation. Rather, the matter is as related by al-Walīd ibn Salm and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Sanʿānī from Zuhayr ibn Muhammad: he had learned from several scholars that they had stated this—that is, they had compiled the names from the Quran…”4.

Ibn Hajar, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “The conclusion established by careful examination is that the list was interpolated by the narrators”5.

Ibn Hajar also quoted Ibn ʿAtiyya, may Allah have mercy on them both, as saying: “Al-Tirmidhī’s hadith is not mass-transmitted, and some of the names it contains are anomalous”6. And Allah knows best.