is better for you—you raise matters and rulings are revealed for you—and my death is also better for you. (1) Your deeds are displayed before me; whenever I see good I praise Allah for it, and whenever I see evil I ask Allah to forgive you. (2)

Al-Bazzār then said: “We do not know the latter portion transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh except through this chain.”

I add: As for the opening words—his statement, peace and blessings be upon him, “Allah has angels who roam the earth conveying to me the greetings of my community”—al-Nasāʾī (4) related it through several routes, from Sufyān al-Thawrī and from al-Aʿmash, both of them from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Sāʾib.

Imām Aḥmad (6) said: Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Juʿfī narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir, from Abū al-Ashʿath al-Ṣanʿānī, from Aws ibn Aws, who said: The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Among the best of your days is Friday: on it Adam was created, on it he died, on it the Trumpet will be blown, and on it the thunder-stroke will occur. So increase your prayers upon me on that day, for your prayers are presented to me.”

They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, how will our prayers be presented to you when you have decayed?” He replied, “Allah has forbidden the earth to consume the bodies of the prophets.”

Abū Dāwūd (8) transmitted this through Hārūn ibn ʿAbd Allāh and al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī, and al-Nasāʾī (9) through Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr; all three report it from Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī. Ibn Mājah (10) narrated it from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, through Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, from Ibn Jābir, from Abū al-Ashʿath, from Shaddād ibn Aws, and so on.

Our teacher Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Mizzī said: “This is an error on the part of Ibn Mājah; what is correct is Aws ibn Aws, the Thaqafī.”

(I add: In a well-known, reliable copy in my possession it likewise reads correctly: Aws ibn Aws, exactly as related by Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Nasāʾī.)