760 — “If there is good in any of the remedies you use, it is in cupping.”

Abu Dawud (2/151), Ibn Majah (2/350), al-Hakim (4/410), and Ahmad (2/342, 423) recorded it through Hammad ibn Salamah, from Muhammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abu Salamah, from Abu Hurayrah, as a report attributed to the Prophet. Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria,” and al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: This is open to question, for Muslim only narrated Muhammad ibn ʿAmr as a supporting narrator, though his hadith is good. The hadith has another route with the wording: “Cupping is the best treatment people use.” It is recorded in the other book (3900) and will be mentioned later. It also has a supporting report that has preceded under no. 245.

761 — “Gabriel came to me with fever and plague. I kept the fever in Medina and sent the plague to al-Sham. Plague is martyrdom for my community, mercy for them, and a punishment upon the disbelievers.”

Ahmad (5/81), Ibn Hibban, in the biographical notice of Abu Nasir Muslim ibn ʿUbayd in al-Thiqat (1/215), and Ibn ʿAsakir in Tarikh Dimashq (1/341–342) narrated it through Yazid ibn Harun, who said: Abu Nasir Muslim ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us: I heard Abu ʿUsayb, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah, say—then he related it as a report attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Ibn Hibban deemed this Abu Nasir trustworthy, as you have seen; and when Ahmad was asked about him, he said: “Trustworthy,”