“It is singular. We know it to be attributed to the Prophet only through the hadith of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, the steward and client of the family of al-Zubayr. There is disagreement in the way it was narrated from him: Ibn ʿUlayyah narrated it from him as we have cited it, while Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated it from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, who said: ‘I heard Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar say: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said...’ Thus, he did not give it a connected chain, but rather narrated it as mursal. He said: Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr al-Ramādī also narrated it from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from Ayyūb, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: ‘It used to be said: Whoever sees an afflicted person...’—the hadith. This is closer to what is correct, if Allah Most High wills. It was only ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, the steward of the family of al-Zubayr, who alone mentioned the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in reporting it from Sālim, despite the discrepancy in the reports from him which we have mentioned. There is some question concerning this ʿAmr ibn Dīnār. He is not ʿAmr ibn Dīnār al-Makkī, the client of Ibn Bādhān and companion of Jābir; that one was a distinguished, trustworthy hadith master.”
I say: Another instance of the discrepancy in the reports from this ʿAmr is what Ibn ʿAdī recorded in al-Kāmil (66/2) through the route of al-Ḥakam ibn Sinān: ʿAmr ibn Dīnār narrated to us, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, attributed to the Prophet. He said: “ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, the steward of the family of al-Zubayr, narrates it only from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from his father, from his grandfather. Whoever says: from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, has erred.”
I say: Muḥammad ibn Sūqah corroborated him in narrating it from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, as mentioned above. Perhaps this was the original form of the hadith as narrated by ʿAmr ibn Dīnār: he narrated it correctly in this manner on one occasion, and al-Ḥakam ibn Sinān heard it from him, despite his weakness; then he became inconsistent in his narration of it, as explained above. In any event, the hadith is strong through the combined strength of the first two routes. And Allah knows best.
- “The children of Muslims are in Paradise, and Abraham, peace and blessings be upon him, takes them into his care.”
Aḥmad (2/326), Ibn Ḥibbān (1826), Abū Muḥammad al-Mukhlidī in al-Fawāʾid (289/1), al-Ḥākim (2/370), and Ibn