- From al-Zuhrī: Ibn Saʿd recorded it in al-Ṭabaqāt (1/239–240): Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar informed us; he said: Maʿmar ibn Rāshid narrated to me, from him. He said: He then mentioned it in the course of a lengthy hadith concerning the construction of the mosque.
I say: This chain of transmission is extremely weak. Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar is al-Wāqidī, and he is abandoned; thus, it is unfit to serve as corroborative evidence or a supporting route.
- From Rāshid ibn Saʿd: al-Mufaḍḍal al-Jundī said in Kitāb Faḍl al-Madīnah (“The Book of the Virtue of Madinah”) (no. 47 in my copy): Ibn Abī ʿUmar and Saʿīd narrated to us, saying: Sufyān narrated to us from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from him, who said:
“The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sent ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah and some of his Companions. They had with them a reed or a palm frond, with which they were sweeping the mosque. ʿAbdullāh ibn Rawāḥah said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, why do we not build this mosque according to the construction of the mosque in Syria?’ The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, took the palm frond or reed and flung it away—that is, he threw it—and said: ‘A few pieces of timber, thumām grass, and a shelter like Moses’s shelter; the matter is more urgent than that.’”
I say: This too is an authentic mursal chain of transmission; all its narrators are trustworthy.
It has also been narrated with a connected chain of transmission, as follows:
- From Abū al-Dardāʾ: Abū Ḥāmid al-Ḥaḍramī, the trustworthy narrator, stated in his Hadith Collection (fol. 2/2): Zayd ibn Saʿīd al-Wāsiṭī informed us: Bishr ibn al-Sirrī narrated to us; Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us from Thawr, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said: He then cited it, similarly to the preceding report, though with an abbreviated wording in the Companion’s statement. Al-Mukhalliṣ also narrated it in al-Fawāʾid al-Muntaqāh (9/193/1): Muḥammad ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Zayd ibn Saʿīd al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us, through the same chain. Al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī likewise narrated it in al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah (7/117/1), by way of al-Baghawī, from Zayd al-Wāsiṭī, through the same chain.