He then returned to the narration of ʿAbd al-Samad and said: Hammam narrated to us; Qatadah narrated to us with this chain, except that he said: “Whoever memorizes ten verses from Surah al-Kahf.”

I say: The meaning of this—and Allah knows best—is that ʿAbd al-Samad and ʿAffan differed in their narration from Hammam over this wording of the hadith. ʿAbd al-Samad said, “from Surah al-Kahf,” without mentioning “the beginning,” whereas ʿAffan said, “from the beginning of Surah al-Kahf,” as the group narrated from Qatadah. There is no doubt that this is correct, since the group had stronger retention, especially as they also included an additional wording. This is further confirmed by the fact that ʿAffan was corroborated. Imam Ahmad said (5/196): Yazid narrated to us; Hammam ibn Yahya informed us, from Qatadah, with this chain.

Abu Dawud said in his Sunan (4323): Hafs ibn ʿUmar narrated to us; Hammam narrated to us; Qatadah narrated to us with this chain. He said: “Hisham al-Dastawaʾi likewise narrated it from Qatadah, except that he said: ‘Whoever memorizes the concluding verses of Surah al-Kahf.’ Shubah narrated from Qatadah: ‘Whoever memorizes from the end of al-Kahf.’”

I say: Muslim recorded Hisham’s narration (2/199): Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna narrated to us; Muʿadh ibn Hisham narrated to us; my father narrated to me—and he mentioned it in the same manner as the narration of the group. Thus, I do not know whether Abu Dawud was mistaken in what he attributed to Hisham, or whether the narrators differed in reporting this from him, just as they previously differed over Hammam. The latter is more likely.

As for Shubah’s narration, it is as Abu Dawud mentioned. Ahmad (6/446), al-Dani in al-Fitan (“Tribulations”) (132/2), and Muslim recorded it with a connected chain. Muslim then said: “Hammam said, ‘from the beginning of al-Kahf,’ as Hisham said.” By this, he indicated that their narration should be preferred over Shubah’s narration, and that would be so even if the two of them stood alone.