Hajj and ʿUmrah, for they repel poverty and sins just as the bellows drives the dross from iron (1).
This is a fair hadith with an elevated chain among the corroborating transmissions; al-Nasa’i recorded it from Sulayman ibn Sayf.
Those who died in that same year were: Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-ʿUtaridi (2), Ahmad ibn ʿIsam (3), Abu ʿUtbah al-Hijazi (4), Ahmad ibn Mahdi ibn Rustum (5), Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Farraʾ (6), Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd ibn al-Munadi (7), and Muhammad ibn ʿAwf al-Ta’i (8).
- Muhammad ibn Shaddad ibn ʿIsa, Abū Yaʿla al-Mismaʿi *
The shaykh, the long-lived musnid, Abū Yaʿla al-Mismaʿi—originally of Basra and later of Baghdad—a Muʿtazilite theologian nicknamed Zurqān.
He was the last man to transmit from Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan and from Abu Zukayr Yahya ibn Muhammad al-Madani.
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Al-Nasa’i also recorded it (5/115, Book of Hajj, chapter “The merit of alternating between Hajj and ‘Umrah”), through Abu Dawud who was told by Abu ‘Atab, with this same chain. Related on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ud in al-Tirmidhi (no. 810) and al-Nasa’i (5/115); Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Hibban (no. 967) declared it sound. Another report comes from ‘Umar in Ibn Majah (no. 2887) and Ahmad (1/25).
(2) His biography appeared above on p. 55, no. 43.
(3) His biography appeared above on p. 41, no. 25.
(4) Mentioned earlier on p. 58, note 2.
(5) Mentioned earlier on p. 58, note 3.
(6) Mentioned earlier on p. 58, note 6.
(7) Mentioned earlier on p. 58, note 7.
(8) Mentioned earlier on p. 58, note 4. See also: al-Lubab 3/212; Tadhkirat al-huffaz 2/602 (end of the entry on al-Dir‘aquli); Mizan al-i‘tidal 3/579; al-Wafi bi-l-wafayat 3/148–149.