Al-Dhahabī left al-Ḥākim’s grading untouched. In truth, however, the report rises no higher than the rank of ḥasan, because its chain contains Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, even though he has clearly declared that he heard it directly.
Legal implications:
After documenting this ḥadīth with a level of thoroughness you will scarcely find elsewhere, and after demonstrating that it is accepted by the two Imāms—al-Bukhārī and Muslim—and by other collectors of the Ṣaḥīḥ, Sunan, and Musnad compilations, I say:
This narration carries a host of profound benefits, among them:
- The righteous believers will intercede for their fellow worshippers who were cast into Hell because of their sins, and then for others beneath them, the extent of their intercession varying according to each person’s strength of faith.
- Thereafter Allah, exalted is He, will graciously bestow His favor upon whatever believers still remain in the Fire, bringing them out of it without any deed they performed or good work they sent ahead.
Some have imagined that the phrase “no good” being negated here opens the door to releasing from the Fire those who were not monotheists. Ibn Ḥajar states in Fatḥ al-Bārī (13/429): “This has been refuted, for what is negated is every good deed beyond the mere affirmation of the two testimonies, as the rest of the narrations make clear.”
I would add: among the proofs for this is the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—statement in the lengthy ḥadīth of Anas on intercession: ⦗31⦘