The first narration:

Imam Ahmad—together with al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, though the wording quoted here is Ahmad’s—said: “ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Muhallabī related to us, from Hishām ibn Ziyād, from ʿAmmār ibn Saʿd, from ʿUthmān ibn Arqam ibn Abī al-Arqam, from his father—who was one of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘Whoever steps over people’s necks on Friday and separates two men after the Imām has come out is like a person who will be dragged by his intestines in the Fire.’

The second narration:

Ahmad said: “ʿIṣām ibn Khālid related to us; ʿAṭṭāf ibn Khālid related to us; Yaḥyā ibn ʿImrān related to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn al-Arqam, from his grandfather al-Arqam, who said:

‘I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and he asked, “Where are you heading?” I replied, “O Messenger of Allah, to that place,” and I pointed toward the precinct of Bayt al-Maqdis. He said, “What is taking you there—business?” I said, “No, I simply wish to pray there.” He replied, “Prayer here”—and he gestured toward Mecca—“is better than a thousand prayers,” and he gestured toward al-Shām.’

Ahmad alone recorded both of these traditions.

Among those scribes—may Allah be pleased with him—was Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī, whose kunya was Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; some, however, say Abū Muḥammad al-Madani. He was the spokesman of the Anṣār and is also called the spokesman of the Prophet ﷺ.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd relates: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madāʾinī informed us, through his chains from his teachers who reported on the Arab delegations to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. They said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlas al-Thumālī and Musliya ibn Hizzān al-Huddānī came to the Messenger of Allah with a company of their people after the Conquest of Mecca. They embraced Islam and pledged allegiance on behalf of their tribe. The Prophet had a document written for them stipulating the zakat due on their wealth; it was written by Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās and witnessed by Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah and Muḥammad ibn Maslamah—may Allah be pleased with them.

This man is among those whom Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim confirms the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gladdened with the tidings of Paradise.

Al-Tirmidhī likewise narrated in his Jāmiʿ, with a chain that meets Muslim’s criteria, from Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “How excellent …”