the gardens of Paradise⦗1⦘.
Ibn Abī Dāʾūd said: “I saw Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī reading before Qāsim ibn ʿUthmān; Qāsim would cry out and lose consciousness. He was an outstanding hadith scholar of Damascus and, in merit, was deemed superior to Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī.”
Saʿīd ibn Aws said: “I heard Qāsim al-Jūʿī—he was a Sufi who was nicknamed for his constant hunger.”
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaṣāʾirī related from Abū al-Riḍā al-Ṣayyād: “Qāsim al-Jūʿī was the devout worshipper of the people of Syria.”
Muḥammad ibn al-Fayḍ said: “When Yaḥyā ibn Aktham arrived in Damascus with the caliph al-Maʾmūn, he sent for Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥawārī. Aḥmad came and sat with him. Yaḥyā then removed a long cloak and another garment and put them on him, handed him five thousand dirhams, and said, ‘Distribute this, Abū al-Ḥasan, wherever you think best.’
Aḥmad went into the mosque and performed several prayers wearing the robe. Qāsim al-Jūʿī remarked, ‘He has taken the thieves’ dirhams and donned their clothes.’
Then he came to the congregational mosque and passed by him while he was in
(1) Its chain is sound; all the transmitters are reliable except for ʿAbd Allah b. Nafiʿ – the goldsmith – who, although listed among Muslim’s narrators, is somewhat weak in retention. Al-Haythami reproduces the report in Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 4/9, with the wording: “what lies between my house and my pulpit,” and notes that al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Kabir (no. 13156) and al-Awsat (no. 153) with wholly reliable transmitters.
Other narrations exist: from ʿAbd Allah b. Zayd al-Mazani (Malik 1/197; Bukhari 3/57; Muslim no. 1390; al-Nasaʾi 2/35); from Abu Hurayra (Bukhari 3/57); and from ʿAli and Abu Hurayra (al-Tirmidhi nos. 3911–3912), all with the wording “between my house…”. See Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 4/8–9.
Ibn Hajar comments in Fath al-bari, 3/57, on Bukhari’s heading “The merit of the area between the grave and the pulpit”: after praising the value of prayer in the Madina mosque, Bukhari wished to show that certain parts of the mosque are superior to others. He mentioned the grave in the title but quoted the two hadiths with the wording “house,” because the grave later came to be inside that house. Some chains indeed read “grave.” Al-Qurtubi affirms that the sound version is “my house,” while “my grave” is also transmitted and conveys the same meaning, as the Prophet was buried in the very house where he had lived.