Al-Bukhārī (1) also related it through ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf, from Mālik, with the same wording.

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim (2) transmitted it as well: through Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from Abū Salamah and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Abū Saʿīd, in identical terms.

Aḥmad (3) said: Yazīd narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us; from Abū Salamah who said:

A man came to Abū Saʿīd and asked, “Have you heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mention anything about the Ḥarūriyyah?”

He answered, “I heard him speak of a people who go to extremes (4) in the religion; each of you would belittle his own prayer compared with theirs, and his fasting compared with theirs. They shoot out of the religion just as an arrow passes clean through its game: the archer takes his arrow, examines the head and finds nothing, then looks at the shaft and finds nothing, [then he looks at its socket and finds nothing] (5) and finally inspects the fletching, doubting whether he can see any trace at all.”

Ibn Mājah (6) likewise reported it through Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, with the same wording.

[The eighth chain]

Imām Aḥmad (7) said: Ibn Abī ʿAdī narrated to us, from Sulaymān, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned a people who will appear within his community. They will emerge during a time of division among the people; their distinguishing mark is shaving the head. “They are the worst of creation—or among the worst of creation—and they will be killed by the party that is nearest to the truth.”

He added: The Prophet ﷺ gave a parable—or he said, a statement—about them: “A man shoots at his prey—or, he said, at a target—then inspects the arrowhead and sees no trace, inspects the shaft and sees no trace, and inspects the nock and sees no trace.”

Abū Saʿīd said, “And it was you, O people of Iraq, who killed them.”

Muslim (8) also recorded it through Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī, from Sulaymān—namely Ibn Ṭarḫān al-Taymī—from Abū Naḍrah, whose name is al-Mundhir ibn Mālik ibn Qiṭʿah, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, with similar wording.

Hadith Eight (9): On the authority of Salmān al-Fārisī

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said: Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah narrated to us, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, who said: A man came to a group and said: