the glad tidings with which Allah has honored you concerning your household.”

He asked:

“What am I to take, O Gabriel?”

Gabriel then recited to him:

“Has there [not] come upon man a period of time?” (1)

[Surah al-Insān: 1].

The surah points to numerous virtues that no one before him attained and no one after him will match. He is thus superior to all others and is therefore the Imam.”

The response may be given from several angles:

First: Evidence establishing the authenticity of this report must be produced, as explained above. The mere fact that al-Thalabī, al-Wāhidī, and others like them narrated it does not establish its authenticity, by the agreement of Sunnis and Shiites alike. If two people disputed an issue concerning legal rulings or virtues, and one of them cited a hadith (2) but offered no evidence of its authenticity other than its narration by one of these authors in his Quranic commentary, this would neither establish its authenticity nor constitute proof against his opponent, by scholarly consensus.

These authors habitually transmit what others have transmitted. Regarding much (3) of this material, they do not know whether it is authentic or weak. They also transmit, among hadith reports, accounts from Israelite traditions that others know to be false in fact; for their defining role (4) is to transmit whatever has been transmitted or recount people’s statements, even though much of both is false. They may sometimes discuss whether certain reports are authentic or weak, but they neither do so consistently nor adhere to this as a rule.

Second: Hadith experts—who are the leading authorities and arbiters in this field—unanimously agree that this hadith is an outright fabrication. It is the judgment of these experts that is reported in