Al-Bukhārī likewise records this ḥadīth in several other places (1), as do Muslim (2) and al-Nasāʾī (3), through various chains that go by way of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān, from ʿUbayd Allāh—i.e., Ibn ʿUmar al-ʿUmari—with identical wording.

Al-Bukhārī (4) states: “ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd related to us; ʿUbayd Allāh related to us; Saʿīd narrated to me from his father, from Abū Hurayrah who said:

It was asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, who is the most noble of people?’ He replied, ‘The most God-fearing among them.’

They said, ‘That is not what we are asking you about.’

He said, ‘Then Joseph—the Prophet of Allah, son of the Prophet of Allah, son of the Prophet of Allah, son of the Intimate Friend of Allah.’

They said, ‘That is not what we are asking you about.’

He said, ‘So you are asking about the lineages of the Arabs? The best of them in the pre-Islamic period are the best of them in Islam, provided they acquire understanding.’”

Al-Bukhārī then remarks: “Abū Usāmah and Muʿtamir transmitted it likewise from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ.”

I say: He also gave a fully connected chain for it in another passage through their narration (5), as well as through the report of ʿAbdah ibn Sulaymān (6), and al-Nasāʾī supplies it through the report of Muḥammad ibn Bishr (7); all four routes come from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ (8).

Aḥmad (9) states: “Muḥammad ibn Bishr related to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us; Abū Salamah related to us, from Abū Hurayrah who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘The noble, son of the noble, son of the noble, son of the noble is Joseph son of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham, the Intimate Friend of Allah.’” Aḥmad alone records this exact wording.

Al-Bukhārī (10) says: “ʿAbdah related to us; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad related to us; from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said, ‘The noble, son of the noble, son of the noble, son of the noble is Joseph son of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham.’” He alone transmits it through the chain of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from his father, from Ibn ʿUmar.

As for the ḥadīth reported by Imām Aḥmad (12): “Yaḥyā related to us, from Sufyān, who informed me from Mughīrah ibn al-Nuʿmān, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said, ‘People will be gathered barefoot, naked, and uncircumcised; the first to be clothed will be Abraham…’”