The Benefits (36/1), Ibn Bishrān in Dictations (18/5/1), Ibn Shādhān al-Azjī in The Benefits (2/102/1), al-Rāmahurmuzī in The Separator (p. 137), Ibn ʿAsākir in The History of Damascus (2/20/1, 8/203/1), al-Ḍiyāʾ in Selections from His Auditions (folio 59/1), and likewise Abū al-Qāsim ibn Abī al-Qaʿnab in The Hadith of al-Qāsim ibn al-Ashīb (folio 7/2)—all through the route of ʿAbd Allah ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zabr, who said: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Arzab narrating from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, with the above wording.

Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Al-Tirmidhī, however, said: “A singular hadith. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk is Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Arzab; it is also said that Ibn Arzam is more correct.”

I do not know why al-Tirmidhī regarded it as singular, for his designation of a hadith as singular generally implies that it is weak, even though all its narrators are trustworthy. Thus, the chain is authentic, as al-Dhahabī said, following al-Ḥākim.

540 — “A servant may utter a word without giving it due thought, and because of it fall into the Fire farther than the distance between east and west.”

Aḥmad recorded it (2/378–379): Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: Bakr ibn Muḍar narrated to us from Yazīd ibn al-Hād, from Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say this.

I say: This is an authentic chain according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Muslim also recorded it in his Authentic Collection (8/223–224) through this chain, except that he said: “ʿĪsā ibn Ṭalḥah” in place of “Abū Salamah.” That is perhaps more accurate, for Ibn Abī Ḥāzim corroborated him, narrating it from Yazīd, from him, with the same wording. Al-Bukhārī recorded it (4/255), and the additional wording is his.