773 — “Keep sheep, for there is blessing in them.”

Abu Bakr al-Muqriʾ narrated it in al-Fawāʾid (1/113/1), and al-Khatib (7/11), through two routes from Hisham ibn ʿUrwah, from ʿAʾishah, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to Umm Hāniʾ, and then cited it. This chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.

Ibn Majah (2304) also narrated it through a third route, from Hisham ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from Umm Hāniʾ, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to her: “Keep sheep, for there is blessing in them.”

It says in al-Zawāʾid (fol. 142/1): “Its chain of transmission is authentic, and its narrators are trustworthy.”

I say: It is as he said. It also has a fourth route in al-Khatib (8/202), from Hafs ibn ʿUmar—known as al-Kufr—who said: Hisham ibn ʿUrwah narrated to us, with the wording: “O Umm Hāniʾ, keep sheep, for they go out in the morning and return in the evening with goodness.” He cited it in Hafs’s biographical notice, without mentioning any narrator criticism or accreditation concerning him. However, it has another route in the Musnad (6/343), from Umm Hāniʾ herself, with Hafs’s aforementioned wording. Its chain includes Musa—or an unnamed man—ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Rabiʿah, whom no one has declared trustworthy.

Al-Majmaʿ (4/66) states: “Ahmad narrated it, and its chain includes Musa ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Rabiʿah, whom I do not know.”