in some of the carefully verified copies, and he goes on at the very opening of the report to say:
Al-Layth (1) said: “Jaʿfar ibn Rabīʿah narrated to us, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, the story of the man who borrowed one thousand dinars from another man. The lender said, ‘Bring me a guarantor.’ He replied, ‘Allah is sufficient as a guardian.’”
The ḥadith is well-known, and al-Bukhārī cites it as a suspended report in several places.
Our predecessors among the ḥadith scholars were puzzled by the wording that appears in the commentary on Sūrat al-Fath in the Ṣaḥīḥ (2):
“ʿAbd Allāh (3) narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salamah narrated to us, from Hilāl, from ʿAtāʾ ibn Yasār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr,” after which he mentioned the ḥadith: “Indeed, We have sent you as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner.” (4)
(1) Al-Hafiz notes that in al-Saghani’s recension (4/385, “The Chapter on Suretyship”) the chain begins: “ʿAbd Allah b. Salih related to us; al-Layth related to me…”. The same isnad already appeared under “Trade by Sea” (4/255). Abu Dharr and Abu al-Waqt link the chain at its end, while al-Bukhari himself narrates it saying: “ʿAbd Allah b. Salih told me; al-Layth told me…”. Abu Dharr also supplies a complete chain through his shaykh ʿAli b. Wasif → Muhammad b. Ghassan → ʿUmar b. al-Khattab al-Sijistani → ʿAbd Allah b. Salih. The very same isnad is given in “What may be taken from the Sea” (Book of Zakat, 3/287). The report is not unique to ʿAbd Allah b. Salih: al-Ismaʿili transmits it via ʿAsim b. ʿAli and Adam b. Abi Iyas, and al-Nasaʾi via Dawud b. Mansur—each of them from al-Layth—while Ahmad (2/348) records it through Yunus b. Muhammad from al-Layth. There is also an independent route from Abu Hurayra, briefly cited by al-Bukhari in the Book of Seeking Permission (11/40) through ʿUmar b. Abi Salama → his father → Abu Hurayra, fully connected in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 1128) and declared authentic by Ibn Hibban.
(2) Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Tafsir, 8/449.
(3) Al-Hafiz states that Abu Dharr’s and Abu ʿAli al-Sakan’s versions name the narrator as “ʿAbd Allah b. Maslama,” i.e. al-Qaʿnabi, whereas other copies give only “ʿAbd Allah.” Abu Masʿud therefore hesitated between identifying him as ʿAbd Allah b. Rajaʾ or ʿAbd Allah b. Salih, the scribe of al-Layth. Abu ʿAli al-Jayyani preferred the latter, a view strengthened by al-Mizzi, who pointed out that al-Bukhari cites the same hadith in al-Adab al-Mufrad (247) through ʿAbd Allah b. Salih from ʿAbd al-ʿAziz. Ibn Hajar replies that this does not amount to certainty, for one and the same hadith may reach him through two different shaykhs from a common teacher; the reading preserved by Abu ʿAli and Abu Dharr—both reliable transmitters—is therefore no less weighty than that found in al-Adab.
(4) The wording is: “From ʿAbd Allah b. ʿAmr b. al-ʿAs, may Allah be pleased with both of them, that this verse which is in…”