ibn Saʿdān; Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ibn al-Mujaddar; al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Birtī; Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī; Jaʿfar al-Firyābī; Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī; and a large number of others.
Abū Ḥātim—and others—declared him trustworthy.
Some of his higher-level isnāds have reached me.
He died in Jumādā al-Ākhirah of the year 237 AH. Whoever says it was 236 AH is mistaken.
Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq informed us; al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn Abī Sharīk informed us; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Naqqūr narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī dictated to us, saying: Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād narrated to us, saying: Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, from Suhayl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Islam consists of sixty-odd—or he said: seventy-odd—branches. The highest of them is “There is no god but Allah,” the lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road, and modesty is a branch of faith.’ (1)
(1) Muslim also reports this hadith in his Sahih, no. 35 (58), Book of Faith, chapter “Clarification of the number of the branches of faith,” through the chain Suhayl ibn Abi Salih → ‘Abd Allah ibn Dinar → Abi Salih → Abu Hurayra.
Al-Bukhari transmits it as well, 1/48–49, Book of Faith, chapter “The components of faith,” via Abi ‘Amir al-‘Aqadi → Sulayman ibn Bilal → ‘Abd Allah ibn Dinar → Abi Salih → Abu Hurayra, with the wording: “Faith consists of sixty-odd branches, and modesty is a branch of faith.”
Abu Dawud (no. 4676), al-Tirmidhi (2614), and al-Nasa’i (8/110) narrate it through Suhayl ibn Abi Salih from ‘Abd Allah ibn Dinar, stating “seventy-odd” without any doubt.
The term bid‘ (“odd”) denotes any number between three and ten.
“Removing something harmful from the road” refers to clearing away whatever might injure passers-by, such as thorns, stones, and the like.
Regarding the phrase “modesty is a branch of faith,” al-Khattabi explains that modesty prevents a person from committing sins; it is therefore counted as part of faith, for faith comprises obedience to what Allah commands and abstention from what He forbids.