—a sound one.

Harami ibn ʿUmārah said: ʿAzrah ibn Thābit narrated to us, from ʿAlbaʾ ibn Aḥmar, who said: Abū Zayd al-Anṣārī related to me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me, “Come close to me.” He then passed his hand over my head and beard and prayed, “O Allah, beautify him and preserve his beauty.” He lived to be a little over one hundred years old, and there were only a few white hairs in his beard; his face remained smooth and unwrinkled until the day he died. Al-Bayhaqī commented, “This chain is authentic and uninterrupted, and Abū Zayd is ʿAmr ibn Akhtab.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq said: al-Ḥusayn ibn Wāqid narrated to us, who said: Abū Nahīk al-Azdī narrated to us from ʿAmr ibn Akhtab—who is Abū Zayd—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once asked for water. I brought him a vessel in which there was some water, but a hair was floating in it; I removed the hair and then handed the vessel to him. He prayed, “O Allah, beautify him.” I later saw him when he was ninety-three years old, and not a single strand of his head or beard had turned white.

Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān said: My father narrated to us, from Abū al-ʿAlāʾ, who said: I was with Qatādah ibn Milḥān during his final illness when a man passed by the back of the house; I recognized him by the radiance of his face. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had once stroked his face, and whenever I saw him it looked as though his face had been freshly anointed with oil. ʿĀrim and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn also transmitted this report from Muʿtamir.

ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār said: Iyās ibn Salamah ibn al-Akwaʿ narrated to us, who said: My father told me that a man once ate in the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ using his left hand. The Prophet said, “Eat with your right hand.” The man replied, “I cannot.” He said, “May you never be able to—nothing prevented him but arrogance.”