211 - ‘Abdullāh narrated to us, saying: My father narrated to me, saying: Al-Hudhayl ibn Maymūn al-Ju‘fī, a Kufan who used to sit in the mosque of the city—meaning the city of Abū Ja‘far—narrated to us. ‘Abdullāh ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: This was a Kufan teacher of an earlier generation. He narrated from Muttarrih ibn Yazīd, from ‘Ubayd Allāh ibn Zahr, from ‘Alī ibn Yazīd, from al-Qāsim, from Abū Umāma, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“I entered Paradise and heard a rustling sound ahead of me. I asked, ‘What is that?’ The reply was, ‘Bilāl.’ I went on and found that most of the inhabitants of Paradise were the poor among the Emigrants and the children of the Muslims.”

He then related the rest of the hadith, saying:

“Then we went out through one of the eight gates of Paradise. When I was at the gate, a scale pan was brought to me, and I was placed in it. My nation was placed in another pan, and I outweighed them. Then Abū Bakr was brought and placed in one pan, and my entire nation was brought and placed in another pan, and Abū Bakr outweighed them. Then ‘Umar was brought and placed in one pan, and my entire nation was brought and placed on the scale, and ‘Umar outweighed them. My nation was shown to me, one man at a time.”