(1) All the transmitters in this chain are reliable. Abu Dawud (2520), in the Book of Jihad, “Chapter: The Merit of Martyrdom,” and al-Hakim, 2/88, 297, report it through the route of Abd Allah b. Idris—Muhammad b. Ishaq—Ismail b. Umayya—Abu al-Zubayr—Sa id b. Jubayr—from Ibn Abbas. Ibn Hisham, 2/119, and Ahmad, 1/266, also transmit it through Ibn Ishaq—Ismail b. Umayya—Abu al-Zubayr—from Ibn Abbas, but without mentioning Sa id b. Jubayr. Ibn Kathir comments that the first version is the more firmly established. Muslim includes a parallel report in his Sahih (1887) through al-A mash— Abd Allah b. Murrah—Masruq: We asked Abd Allah b. Mas ud about the verse “Do not think of those who are killed in the path of Allah as dead; rather they are alive, being provided for in the presence of their Lord.” He replied: “We, too, once asked about that. He said: ‘Their spirits reside inside green birds that have lamps hanging from the Throne; they roam about Paradise as they wish and then return to those lamps.’ When their Lord looked upon them He asked, ‘Do you desire anything?’ They replied, ‘What could we desire when we wander about Paradise as we wish?’ He asked them that three times. When they realized they would not be left without making a request, they said, ‘Our Lord, we wish that You return our spirits to our bodies so that we may be killed again in Your path.’ When He saw that they had no further need, He left them.” (2) Chain of transmission: strong. It also appears in the Musnad, 3/375, with the reading “naha d,” and in Ibn Kathir’s Sirah, 3/89, with the form “bi-hadan,” which is a scribal error. “Fahsu al-jabal” refers to the foot or level ground of a mountain. (3) Reported by al-Hakim, 3/197 (abridged) and 3/199 (full version); both he and al-Dhahabi remain silent about it in the first place and declare it sound in the longer version. The chain contains Abu Hamad al-Hanafi, al-Mufaddal b. Sadaqah, who is weak, and Abd Allah b. Muhammad b. Aqil, about whom there is some reservation. Al-Dhahabi lists this hadith in his Mizan among the “denied” (munkar) narrations of Abu Hamad al-Hanafi.