655 — “The grateful person who eats is of the same rank as the patient person who fasts.”

Al-Tirmidhī (2/79) transmitted it: Isḥāq ibn Mūsā al-Anṣārī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Maʿn al-Madanī al-Ghifārī narrated to us; my father narrated to me from Abū Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said it. He said: “This is a good, singular hadith.”

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the two Shaykhs, although Maʿn, Muḥammad’s father, was not declared trustworthy by anyone besides Ibn Ḥibbān. As for his son, Ibn Maʿīn also declared him trustworthy. However, he was contradicted in its chain of transmission. ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Muqaddamī said: “I heard Maʿn ibn Muḥammad narrating from Saʿīd ibn Abū Saʿīd al-Maqburī, who said: ‘Ḥanẓalah and I were in al-Baqīʿ with Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, and Abū Hurayrah narrated to us in al-Baqīʿ from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he said’”—and he then mentioned it.

Al-Ḥākim transmitted it (4/136) and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and it is as they said.

I say: Al-Muqaddamī thus differed from him, making its Successor narrator Saʿīd ibn Abū Saʿīd, rather than Abū Saʿīd. This is the more likely version in my view, because he is more trustworthy than Muḥammad ibn Maʿn al-Ghifārī. Moreover, al-Muqaddamī was corroborated: Aḥmad (2/283) said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us; Maʿmar narrated to us from al-Zuhrī, from a man of Banū Ghifār, who heard Saʿīd al-Maqburī narrating it from Abū Hurayrah.