- “When you hear a hadith from me that your hearts recognize, and at which your hair and skin grow soft, and you see it to be close to you, then I am more entitled to it. But when you hear a hadith from me that your hearts reject, and from which your hair and skin recoil, and you see it to be far from you, then I am further removed from it than you.”
Ibn Saʿd (1/387–388) recorded it: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maslamah ibn Qaʿnab informed us; he said: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl informed us, from Rabīʿah, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Saʿīd, from Abū Ḥumayd or Abū Usayd, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission, meeting Muslim’s criteria. ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī also recorded it in al-ʿIlm (Knowledge) (2/43/2), through another route from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, with the same chain.
Ibn Wahb also recorded it in al-Musnad (8/164/2): al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed me, from Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, with the same chain. Ibn Ḥibbān (92) and al-Bazzār likewise recorded it, as cited in al-Aḥkām al-Kubrā (The Major Rulings), no. 101. In my annotation on it, I explained why it is good, identified those who authenticated it, and clarified that the hadith is particular to a certain class among the people of knowledge.
Al-Bukhārī also recorded a similar report in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (The Great History) (2/1/434), through Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Yaḥyā said, “From Abū Hurayrah,” but this is an error: Abū Hurayrah does not occur in its chain; rather, it is Saʿīd ibn Kaysān. I say: It is therefore a strong mursal corroborating report.