Mūsā ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥaḍramī likewise related—through al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah—a narration to this effect, and a similar report is also transmitted from Abū Saʿīd and Ibn ʿUmar.

Imām Aḥmad said: ʿAffān narrated to us; Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh narrated to us; Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us, from Abū al-Miqdām [from] (1) ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Azraq, from ʿAlī, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came in to me while I was asleep [on the mattress] (2). Al-Ḥasan—or al-Ḥusayn—asked him for a drink, so the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, went to one of our bakyʾ (3) goats (a goat that had recently given birth) and milked it, whereupon it produced milk. The other child then came, but the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, turned him aside (4). Fāṭimah said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, do you love this one more than the other?’ He replied, ‘No; rather, he asked first.’ He then added, ‘Indeed, I, you, these two, and this one who is lying down will all be in the same place on the Day of Resurrection.’” Aḥmad alone recorded this (5).

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī also reported it—from ʿAmr ibn Thābit, from his father, from Abū Fākhtah, from ʿAlī—with a similar wording. [A narration of the same or nearly the same meaning is likewise related from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and from Maymūnah and Umm Salamah, the Mothers of the Believers] (6).

It is authentically established that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb used to honor the two boys, carry them himself, and grant them stipends equal to what he gave their father. On one occasion garments arrived from Yemen; he distributed them among the sons of the Companions but gave the two nothing, saying, “There is nothing here that suits them.” He then wrote to his deputy in Yemen and had two suitable cloaks prepared for them.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: Qabīṣah ibn ʿUqbah narrated to us; Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq narrated to us, from al-ʿAyzār ibn Ḥurayth, who said:

“While ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ was sitting in the shade of the Kaʿbah, he saw al-Ḥusayn approaching and said, ‘This is the dearest person on earth to the inhabitants of heaven.’”

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: Sulaymān narrated to me, from (7) al-Dārāwirdī, from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his father:

“The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, accepted the pledge of allegiance from al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn [and ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās] and ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar when they were still young, not yet of age; he never accepted the pledge from any other child besides them.” This is an unusual mursal report.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd also said: Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd informed us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn al-Walīd al-Waṣṣāfī (8) narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn—