The other—i.e., third—chain is that recorded by Aḥmad (3/356): “Yūnus and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bakīr narrated to us. They said: Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir,” with the same hadith, except that Yūnus said, “He will have a reward for it,” while Ibn Abī Bakīr said, “It belongs to him.” Both said: “the creatures that come to feed.”

This chain is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria, for he narrated more than one hadith through this chain. However, Abū al-Zubayr practised tadlīs and related it with an ambiguous “from” formula, though he has corroboration, as mentioned earlier.

There is, moreover, a variation in the first clause of the hadith: “He will have a reward for it,” or, “It belongs to him.” The narration of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and the narration of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Muhallabī, agree with the first version. This is also Yūnus’s narration, as well as that of two other trustworthy narrators from Hishām through these two chains, who differed from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd and ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād in this respect: Ḥammād ibn Usāmah and Ḥammād ibn Zayd.

As for the former, Aḥmad recorded his hadith (3/381), saying: “Ḥammād ibn Usāmah narrated to us: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah narrated to me: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Rāfiʿ narrated to me from Jābir,” with the wording: “Whoever brings barren land into cultivation, it belongs to him; and whatever creatures eat from it will count as charity for him.”

As for Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Aḥmad said (3/338): “Yūnus narrated to us: Ḥammād—that is, Ibn Zayd—narrated to us: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah narrated to us from Wahb ibn Kaysān, from Jābir,” with the same hadith, except that he said: “It will count as charity for him.” A man said: “O Abū al-Mundhir”—Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: Abū al-Mundhir was Hishām ibn ʿUrwah—“What are the creatures that come to feed?” He replied: “Anything that comes to it to feed.”

I have not yet been able to determine which of the two versions is correct. Perhaps we shall later find something that gives one of them preference over the other, and explain it on another occasion, if Allah Most High wills. Then I saw the hadith in Gharīb al-Ḥadīth by Abū ʿUbayd (fol. 52/1): “Muʿāwiyah narrated to us from”