Abu Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī said: “Al-Rabiʿ, the muʾadhdhin of the congregational mosque of al-Fusṭāṭ, died on a Monday and was buried the following Tuesday, the night of the twenty-first of Shawwāl in the year 270 AH. The funeral prayer was led by the emir Khumarawayh—namely, the governor of Egypt and the son of its ruler, Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn.”

I read before ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim, from Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Muḥammad in person; he informed us that Jamāl al-Islām ʿAlī ibn al-Musallam informed us, al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāb informed us, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ghassānī in Ṣaydā informed us, and ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā—the imam of the mosque in Balad—narrated to us. He said: Al-Rabiʿ ibn Sulaymān narrated to us; Bishr ibn Bakr narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam narrated to us from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whenever a man passes by the grave of someone he knew in this world and greets him with the salām, the deceased recognises him and returns the greeting.”

This report is singular, and in addition to its weakness (1) there is a break in the chain, for we have no evidence that Zayd ever heard directly from Abū Hurayrah.

Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Qazwīnī related to us on several occasions; Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd al-Ṣūfī in Baghdad related to us; and I read before Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad the ḥāfiẓ and others, who said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Mubārak narrated to us—both of them said: Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqdisī narrated to us; then Makkī ibn Manṣūr al-Karjī narrated to us (ḥ).

I likewise read before Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim, from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṣaydalanī by a general authorization, and from ʿAbd al-Ghaffār al-Shīrawī in the same way; they both said: The judge Abū Bakr al-Ḥayrī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us; al-Rabiʿ ibn Sulaymān informed us; al-Shāfiʿī informed us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad informed us, from Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from his father, from