Ahmad ibn Salāmah (1) and ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad, by authorisation (2), narrated to us from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Taymī. Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaddād informed us— in the year 511 AH—who said: Abū Nuʿaym informed us; Aḥmad ibn Sahl narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; al-Qaʿnabī narrated to us; Ibn Abī Dhīb, from ʿAjlān the freedman of al-Mushmaʿill, narrated:
From Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about riding a sacrificial camel. He answered, “Ride her.” The man said, “Messenger of Allah, she is a sacrificial animal!” He replied, “Ride her—woe to you!” (3)
And with this chain: Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; Ḥakkām narrated to us; ʿAnbasah narrated to us; from Kathīr ibn Zādhān; from Abū Ḥāzim; from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Gabriel said to me, ‘If only you had seen me, O Muḥammad, while I was pressing him down with one of my hands and stuffing mud into his mouth, fearing that mercy from his Lord might reach him and He forgive him.’”
This is a singular report, and Kathīr is an unknown narrator (4).
(1) The author gives a biographical notice of him in his work Mashyakha, manuscript folio 6.
(2) ʿAli ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad, Abu al-Hasan al-Maqdisi al-Salihi al-Hanbali (d. 690 AH/1291 CE). Al-Dhahabi also includes his entry in his own Mashyakha, manuscript folio 94.
(3) All the transmitters in the chain are trustworthy. Ahmad recorded the hadith as well (2/473, 474, 505) through two routes from Ibn Abi Dhib with this same isnad. Malik related it in the Muwattaʾ (1/387, Book of Hajj, chapter “What is permissible as sacrificial animals”), and through Malik it appears in al-Bukhari (3/428-429; 5/287; 10/456), Muslim (1322), Abu Dawud (1760), al-Nasaʾi (5/176), and Ahmad (2/487) from Abu al-Zinad, from al-Aʿraj, from Abu Hurayra. Ahmad also transmitted it (2/245, 254) through two additional chains from Abu al-Zinad; likewise ʿAbd al-Razzaq—and through him Ahmad (2/278) and al-Bukhari (3/438)—from Maʿmar, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from ʿIkrima, from Abu Hurayra; ʿAbd al-Razzaq—and through him Ahmad (2/312) and Muslim (1322/372)—from Maʿmar, from Hammam ibn Munabbih, from Abu Hurayra. Further chains from Abu Hurayra are found in the Musnad (2/464, 478, 481) and in Ibn Majah (3103).
(4) Ibn Maʿin said: “I do not know him.” Abu Hatim and Abu Zurʿa stated: “He is an unknown shaykh; we know of no one who reported from him except the narration transmitted by Ibn Humayd from Harun ibn al-Mughira, from ʿAnbasa, on his authority.” Ibn Jarir cited the report in his Tafsir (no. 17860) via Ibn Humayd, from Hakkam, with this same isnad. Al-Haythami records a similar judgement…