May Allah be pleased with them both.

That same year ʿAbd Allah Dhū’l-Bijadayn, may Allah be pleased with him, died and was buried at Tabūk. The Prophet ﷺ led the funeral prayer for him, praised him, climbed down into his grave, and settled him in the burrow. Then he supplicated, “O Allah, this evening I am pleased with him, so be pleased with him.”

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī told me that ʿAbd Allah Dhū’l-Bijadayn belonged to the tribe of Muzaynah. He was an orphan raised by his uncle, who treated him well. When the uncle heard that he had embraced Islam, he said, “If you really have, I will take back everything I have given you.” He replied, “Then I am indeed a Muslim.” The uncle reclaimed everything—even the garment he was wearing. He went to his mother, who tore one of her woollen cloaks (bijād) in half; with one part he girded his waist and with the other he covered his shoulders. He then stationed himself at the door of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, raising his voice in recitation of the Qur’an and in remembrance of Allah. He died during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ.

That year the delegation of Thaqīf came from al-Ṭāʾif, accepted Islam after the expedition of Tabūk, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrote a pact for them.

Also that year, after the Prophet ﷺ returned from Tabūk, Suhayl—the brother of Sahl ibn Bayḍāʾ—died. Their mother was Dāʿd bint Juḥdam and their father Wahb ibn Rabīʿah al-Fihrī. Suhayl was a Companion who transmitted hadith. One of his narrations is the report of Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-Miṣrī, from Ibn al-Hād, from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from Saʿīd ibn al-Ṣalt, from Suhayl ibn Bayḍāʾ, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever dies bearing witness that there is no god but Allah will enter Paradise.” A similar version is transmitted by Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm.

Al-Dārāwardī, however, reported the chain as: from Ibn al-Hād, from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from Saʿīd ibn al-Ṣalt, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Anīs. This link would appear uninterrupted from Suhayl, yet Saʿīd ibn al-Ṣalt was a senior Successor who could not have met Suhayl directly, and even if he had heard from him—