(1) Related by al-Tirmidhi, no. 1421; Abu Dawud, no. 4772; Ibn Majah, no. 2580; al-Nasai, no. 4095; Ahmad, 1/190 (no. 1652); and others. Al-Tirmidhi and Ahmad add the wording: “Whoever is killed while defending his religion is a martyr, and whoever is killed while defending his family is a martyr.” The chain runs through Abu Ubayda b. Muhammad b. Ammar b. Yasir → Talhah b. Abd Allah b. Awf → Sa id b. Zayd. On the face of it, the isnad is sound, and al-Tirmidhi graded it “hasan sahih.” I note, however, that Abu Ubayda has been contradicted in both chain and wording by the imam al-Zuhri. A group transmitted it from al-Zuhri → Talhah b. Abd Allah b. Awf → Abd al-Rahman b. Amr → Sa id b. Zayd with the Prophetic statement: “Whoever wrongfully takes a handspan of land will be encircled with it from the seven earths.” Ibn Uyaynah and others add, “and whoever is killed while defending his property is a martyr,” but they do not include the extra phrases reported by Abu Ubayda b. Muhammad. This version appears in al-Bukhari (2320), Ahmad (1628, 1639, 1642, 1643), and others, and it is more authentic than the report of Abu Ubayda b. Muhammad—and Allah knows best. The first clause is also firmly established in the hadith of Abd Allah b. Amr, recorded by al-Bukhari, 2/877, no. 2348; Muslim, “Iman,” no. 141; and elsewhere. (2) In the two manuscripts Z and Mt the preposition ʿala replaces ʿan. (3) The words from li-anna (“because”) up to shahid (“martyr”) are absent in H, and Mt reads lakin (“but”) instead of li-anna.