twelve leaders.” He then said something I could not make out, so I asked my father—and, in another wording of the report, I asked the people—and they replied, “He said: ‘All of them are from Quraysh.’”

This is a sound ḥadith (1), and for both us and the subject of this biography it is counted among the elevated chains.

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad—through my own reading—told us:
Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir told us; Saʿīd ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan told us; ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Busrī told us; Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mukhlis told us; Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad told us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Qawārīrī both told us; they said:

Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us; my father related to me, from Qatādah, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās:
“A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, ‘O Prophet of Allah, I am an old man and standing (in prayer) is hard for me. Direct me to a single night, so that, perhaps, Allah will enable me to attain the Night of Decree.’ He replied, ‘Attend to the seventh night (2).’ ”

Al-Baghawī said, “This wording is that of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and I know of no one other than Muʿādh who has transmitted this ḥadith with this isnād.”

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-ʿAlawī at al-Thaghr informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar, the historian, informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Zāghūnī (ḥ) [also informed us].

We were likewise informed by Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Abī Muḥammad al-Zāhid; our shaykh Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Suhrawardī informed us; Abū al-Muẓaffar Hibat Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Qaṣṣār informed us; they said:
Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Zaynabī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dhahabī informed us; and he said: