Abu Hurayrah. However, this narration appears to be anomalous, and it supports Ibn Ḥibbān’s statement in his Ṣaḥīḥ that this Abū Jaʿfar was Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. After citing the aforementioned narration, al-Ḥāfiẓ objected: “This is not sound, for Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī was not a muezzin; moreover, this Abū Jaʿfar explicitly stated in several hadiths that he had heard from Abū Hurayrah. As for Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, he did not live to meet Abū Hurayrah, so it must be someone else. And Allah, Exalted is He, knows best.”

In al-Mīzān, it states: “Abū Jaʿfar al-Ḥanafī al-Yamāmī: he narrated from Abū Hurayrah, and ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀtikah narrated from him; he is unknown. Abū Jaʿfar, from Abū Hurayrah: I think he is the one mentioned before. Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr alone narrated from him. It was said that he was the Anṣārī muezzin; he has the hadith of the Descent and the hadith of the three supplications. It is also said that he was Medinan, so perhaps he was Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn. His narration from Abū Hurayrah and Umm Salamah is mursal, for he did not meet either of them at all.”

I say: In sum, if this Abū Jaʿfar was the Anṣārī muezzin or al-Ḥanafī al-Yamāmī, then he is unknown; if he was Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī, then he is weak and the chain is interrupted; and if he was Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, then it is mursal. Nevertheless, despite the weakness of its chain of transmission, the hadith is good by virtue of supporting evidence, as al-Tirmidhī said. This is because I found a corroborating report from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording: “Three people have their supplications answered: the parent, the traveller, and the one who has been wronged.”

It was recorded by Aḥmad (4/154) and al-Khaṭīb (12/380–381), through the route of Zayd ibn Salām, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd al-Azraq, from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī, who said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said ….

I say: The narrators of this chain are trustworthy and are narrators used by Muslim, except for ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Azraq. Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned him (2/2/58) without recording either criticism or accreditation for him. Ibn Ḥibbān, however, included him in al-Thiqāt (Reliable Narrators) (1/148), in accordance with his well-known practice.