He said: Abū Qatādah would, I think, comb it twice a day. I was unable to identify this al-Jurashī, nor those shaykhs! He then narrated it through two routes from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, with the same wording in mursal form, and said: “This is more authentic, while its connected version is weak.”

667 — “Unity is mercy, and division is punishment.”

It was transmitted by Aḥmad (4/278), as well as by his son ʿAbd Allāh in al-Zawāʾid (4/375), and by al-Quḍāʿī (3/1), from Abū Wakīʿ al-Jarrāḥ ibn Mulayḥ, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from al-Shaʿbī, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, who said: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said this.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy. There is some criticism concerning Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, whose name was al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, but it does not lower his hadith beneath the rank of good; the same applies to al-Jarrāḥ ibn Mulayḥ.

Al-Suyūṭī attributed the hadith only to ʿAbd Allāh and al-Quḍāʿī, which is an omission. Know that the version found in Aḥmad and his son is part of a hadith whose complete wording is: “Whoever does not thank for little does not thank for much; whoever does not thank people does not thank Allah; speaking of Allah’s blessing is gratitude, and refraining from mentioning it is disbelief; and unity ...” Yet al-Suyūṭī cited it in full, on the authority of al-Bayhaqī alone, in Shuʿab al-Īmān, placing the statement, “Speaking of Allah’s blessing is gratitude,” first.

668 — “Love for the Anṣār is a sign of faith, and hatred for the Anṣār is the sign of a hypocrite.”

It was transmitted by al-Bukhārī (1/10/4/223), Muslim (1/60), and al-Nasāʾī (2/271)