from the Fire.
The people then raced toward the man and discovered that he was a shepherd; when the time for prayer arrived, he stood and gave the adhān.
- ʿAbdullāh ibn Rabīʿah al-Aslamī reported: “The Prophet ﷺ was on a journey when he heard a muʾadhdhin proclaim, ‘I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.’ The Prophet ﷺ replied, ‘I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.’ The caller then said, ‘I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,’ and the Prophet ﷺ responded, ‘I bear witness that I am Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.’ He then remarked, ‘You will find that he is either a shepherd or someone living apart from his family.’”
Ahmad has recorded this ḥadīth (4/336)—with the wording just cited—and so has al-Nasaʾi (1/108), who adds: “When they looked, they found that he was a shepherd.” The chain comes through Shuʿbah, from al-Ḥakam, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from the narrator, and it is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.
Al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd al-Malik also transmitted it from ʿAmmār ibn Muḥammad, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal with a similar wording; this version is cited by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Ṣaghīr (159) and by Ahmad (5/248), but al-Ḥakam is unanimously regarded as weak.
Nevertheless, the Musnad contains corroboration from a ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd with a chain authentic by the standards of the Six Books; I have referenced it in my commentary on al-Ṭabarānī.