(203) – It is also related by Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Jundī, in al-Fawāʾid al-Ḥisān (fol. 2/1), through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar as a marfūʿ report. The wording cited by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī is: “He used to…,” whereas the other narrators say: “I saw…” in place of “He used to….” Al-Tirmidhī remarked: “A ḥadīth that is ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.”

In another version collected by Aḥmad (1/204) the wording is: “The last thing I saw of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was that he held fresh dates in one hand and cucumber in the other; he would take some of this and some of that.”

Its isnād contains Naṣr ibn Bāb, who is feeble. Al-Haythamī, in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (5/38), attributes it to al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsat within a lengthy narration and says: “It includes Aṣram ibn Ḥawshab, who is discarded.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ likewise cites only al-Ṭabarānī in Fatḥ al-Bārī (9/496) and comments: “Its isnād is weak.” What both of them overlooked is that it is also found in the Musnad, as we have just mentioned. Moreover, the wording of al-Ḥāfiẓ softens the evaluation of its chain, whereas in reality the weakness is severe, as al-Haythamī’s statement “he is discarded” indicates.

Accordingly, I maintain that the ḥadīth with this additional wording is weak, and neither of its two isnāds can reinforce the other because both are gravely deficient. It does, however, have a corroborating report from Anas ibn Mālik with the wording: “He would take fresh dates in his right hand and watermelon in his left, eating the dates together with the melon; and that was more beloved….”