Al-Bukhārī also reports (1): “Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar related to us; Shuʿbah narrated from Qatādah, from Abū al-ʿĀliyah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: ‘It is not proper for any servant to say, “I am better than Jonah son of Mattā.”’” In this narration he explicitly mentions Jonah’s father.

Ahmad, Muslim, and Abū Dāwūd likewise transmit it through Shuʿbah with the same chain (2). Shuʿbah, as Abū Dāwūd cites him, remarked: “Qatādah heard no more than four ḥadīths from Abū al-ʿĀliyah; this is one of them.”

Imām Aḥmad (3) also records it through ʿAffān, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, from Ibn ʿAbbās, from the Prophet ﷺ: “And it is not proper for any servant to say, ‘I am better than Jonah son of Mattā.’” Ahmad alone includes this version (4).

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī (5) relates: “Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Kaysān told us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rajāʾ told us; Isrāʾīl narrated from Abū Yaḥyā al-Qattāt, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘It is not permissible for anyone to say, “I am, in the sight of Allah, better than Jonah son of Mattā.”’” Its chain is sound, though the Two Shaykhs did not include it (6).

Al-Bukhārī further states (7): “Abū al-Walīd related to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, who said, ‘I heard Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrate from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ: “It is not proper for any servant to say, ‘I am better than Jonah son of Mattā.’”’” Muslim records it as well through Shuʿbah with this chain (8).

Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim (9) likewise narrate—through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah—the story of the Muslim who struck a Jew on the face when the latter said, “No, by Him who chose Moses above all mankind.” Al-Bukhārī ends that narration with the words: “And I do not assert that anyone is superior to Jonah son of Mattā.”

This wording supports one of the two interpretive views, namely that no one should say, “I am better than Jonah son of Mattā”—meaning that no person has the right to deem himself superior to Jonah.