of Zayd ibn ʿAlī, after whom the Zaydiyyah are named. He is an obscure narrator whom no one has declared reliable. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Acceptable.” Those above him in the chain are trustworthy narrators from among Muslim’s transmitters. Al-Mundhirī also cited the hadith in al-Targhīb (2/11), on the authority of Sahl, and said: “Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Awsaṭ with a good chain of transmission.”

Al-Manāwī quoted al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar as saying: “Two hadith masters arrived at differing judgments concerning it, following diametrically opposed approaches: al-Ḥākim declared it authentic, whereas Ibn al-Jawzī judged it very weak. The correct view is that it should be judged neither authentic nor fabricated. Had Zāfir been corroborated, it would have been good; yet al-ʿIrāqī, in al-Radd ʿalā al-Ṣaghānī, and al-Mundhirī, in his al-Targhīb, stated categorically that it is good.”

I say: This is the correct view, as indicated by the combined weight of all these routes. And Allah knows best.

832 – “The best gatherings are the most spacious.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1136), Abū Dāwūd (4820), al-Ḥākim (4/269), Aḥmad (3/18/69), ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in al-Muntakhab min al-Musnad (108/1), and al-Quḍāʿī (100/1), through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Mawāl, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAmrah al-Anṣārī, who said:

“Abū Saʿīd heard of a funeral among his people, but he seemed to delay until the people had taken their seats. Then he came, and when the people saw him, they drew apart to make room for him. Some of them stood so that he could sit in his place, but he said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say’”—and he then mentioned the foregoing—“then he moved aside and sat in a spacious place.”

I say: This is an authentic chain meeting al-Bukhārī’s criteria, as al-Ḥākim said. There is some criticism concerning this ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, but it is not detrimental. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: