(1) This report is found in Imam Ahmad’s Musnad (vol. 1, p. 8) with a wording close to that cited by al-Shawkānī: “Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) commissioned Khālid ibn al-Walīd to fight the apostates and said, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) say: “Excellent is ‘Abd Allāh and the kinsman’s brother Khālid ibn al-Walīd—a sword among the swords of Allah. May Allah sheath him against the disbelievers and the hypocrites.”’ ” Al-Ḥaythamī notes in Majma‘ al-Zawā’id (9:348, under the chapter on Khālid ibn al-Walīd) that both Ahmad and al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it with similar wording from reliable narrators. It is also recorded by al-Tirmidhī in his Sunan (5:688–689, Kitāb al-Manāqib, ḥadīth no. 3846) on the authority of Zayd ibn Aslam from Abū Hurayrah; al-Tirmidhī comments that it is ḥasan gharīb and, in his view, mursal. (2) A parallel report—with minor verbal differences—appears in Imam Ahmad’s Musnad (vol. 6, p. 75) from ‘Ā’isha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said that ‘Uthmān asked permission to enter, was admitted, and then spoke at length with the Prophet (peace be upon him). The Prophet then repeated twice or three times, “O ‘Uthmān, Allah has girded you with a garment; if the hypocrites wish you to remove it, do not remove it for them, nor demean yourself.” This is also transmitted by al-Tirmidhī in his Sunan (5:628, Kitāb al-Manāqib, ḥadīth no. 3705) in slightly different wording: “O ‘Uthmān, indeed Allah may clothe you with a garment…,” which he deems ḥasan gharīb. Ibn Mājah likewise includes it in his Sunan (vol. 1, p. 41, ḥadīth no. 112) under the chapter on the virtues of the Prophet’s Companions, with yet another phrasing.