his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ drew back the curtain while his head was bandaged during the illness from which he passed away and said, “O Allah, have I conveyed (the message)?” three times. He then added, “Nothing remains of the glad tidings of prophethood except the righteous dream.” … He mentioned the rest of the report, and it is a singular, solitary ḥadīth (1).
It was recorded by Muslim, Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah, all through the narration of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar (2), who is reliable.
Al-Bardānī died in Shawwāl of the year 498 AH; his father was a shaykh and ḥadith scholar.
In the same year there also died the sultan Rukn al-Dawla Abū al-Muẓaffar Barkyāruq (3), the son of the sultan Malikshāh ibn Alp Arslān the Seljuq—a young man of twenty-five years—who remained in
(1) Al-gharib al-fard (a solitary report) is a hadith transmitted by only one narrator, even if several chains ultimately converge upon him. Its evaluation varies with the reliability of that single transmitter: if he is trustworthy and precise, the hadith is sahih (sound); if his accuracy is average, it is hasan (fair); and if he is unreliable, it is daif (weak). Most solitary reports are weak, yet some are sound, such as the individual narrations included by both Sahih collections—or by one of them—e.g. the hadith of Umar, “Actions are judged solely by intentions”; Abu Hurayra’s hadith, “Two phrases, beloved to the Most-Merciful, light on the tongue yet heavy on the scale: subhana-llahi wa bi-hamdih, subhana-llahi al-azim”; Ibn Umar’s hadith, “He forbade the sale or gift of wala (patronage)”; and Abu Hurayra’s hadith, “Faith consists of more than seventy branches.”
(2) The author has erred here: Muslim (no. 479 / 208) in the Book of Prayer, chapter on the prohibition of reciting the Quran while bowing or prostrating, and al-Nasaʾi 2/217-218 in the section on the opening of prayer, both transmit the report through Ismail b. Jaʿfar. Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah do not; in their collections (nos. 876 and 3899) it comes instead through Sufyan b. ʿUyayna, from Sulayman b. Sihm—the same chain found in Muslim (no. 479 / 207), al-Nasaʾi 2/189-190, and Ahmad 1/219. Muslim’s complete wording reads: “A Muslim may see it, or it is shown to him. Know that I have been forbidden to recite the Quran while bowing or prostrating. During bowing, therefore, glorify the Lord; during prostration, intensify your supplications, for they are more likely to be answered.”
(3) His biography has already been given under no. 117.