= with the wording, “The voice of Abu Talhah is more daunting to the polytheists than a fiʾah (company).” This is the version related on his authority by Ahmad b. Hanbal (3:249, no. 13604) and by Ibn Abi Shaybah, as cited by ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd in his Musnad, no. 1382. Ibn Abi Shaybah also recorded it in the Musannaf (6:517, no. 33412) from Yazid, from Ḥammad, from ʿAli b. Zayd, from Anas, mentioning it in full. This shows that Ḥammad b. Salamah was inconsistent in transmitting it, even though he is among the most reliable narrators from ʿAli b. Zayd and Thabit al-Bunani; accordingly, the route through Thabit is not soundly preserved. Al-Thawri narrated it from Ibn ʿAqil, from Jabir—or from Anas—and mentioned it. I say: this version is not reliable; the correct attribution is that it is the hadith of ʿAli b. Zayd from Anas. Hence the isnad is weak, because Ibn Judʿan alone relates it and he is soft in hadith—Allah knows best. (1) Reported by al-Bukhari, Sahih, no. 3837; and Muslim, Sahih, no. 1811. (2) In Maṭ the wording is “the people fled,” in Ḥ it is “some of the people,” while the reading adopted here follows Ẓ and Sahih Muslim. (3) In Ḥ and Ẓ it reads “yujawwab ʿanhu”; the adopted wording follows Maṭ and Sahih Muslim, though they do not contain the phrase “with him.” The expression “bi-hijfa” means “with a small shield (tirs)”; see al-Nihayah 1:345. (4) Muslim adds: “with him was a quiver full of arrows.”