and Ahmad (3/202, 206 and 277).

23 – There are several hadiths concerning this:

The first is from Fātimah bint Qays; I quoted its wording a little earlier (pp. 82–83).

The second is also from Jābir, who said:

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, stood on the pulpit one day and said:

“O people, I have not stood before you because of news that has come to me from heaven.” (He then related the hadith of al-Jassāsah in abridged form, including the following:) “He said: ‘He is the False Messiah, who will traverse the earth in forty days, except for Taybah.’”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Taybah is Medina. At every one of its gates there is an angel with his sword drawn, preventing him from entering. The same is true of Mecca.”

Recorded by Abū Yaʿlā in his Musnad (pp. 112/2 and 113/2) through two chains from Muhammad ibn Fudayl, who said: Al-Walīd ibn Jumayʿ narrated to us, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahmān, from Jābir.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, and it meets Muslim’s criteria. Al-Haythamī said (7/346):

“Abū Yaʿlā narrated it through two chains; the narrators in one of them are narrators of al-Sahīh.”

The third is from Mihjan ibn al-Adraʿ, who said:

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sent me on an errand, then met me on one of the roads of Medina. He then climbed Uhud, and I climbed with him. He turned towards Medina and said something to it, then said: “Woe to you—or: Alas for her—a city whose inhabitants will abandon it when it is at its most fruitful, its produce to be eaten by