“He said: ‘Their fire was extinguished, and Allah routed them.’” This is how both of them recorded it; neither includes among the words of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, “Gabriel came to me.” Perhaps it occurs in al-Ṭabarānī’s narration, or perhaps al-Suyūṭī rendered it by meaning in order to cite it in its appropriate place in al-Jāmiʿ.

The chain of transmission is authentic. All its narrators down to Ibn Khinbash meet Muslim’s criteria. Scholars have differed as to whether he was a Companion, but al-Ḥāfiẓ, in al-Iṣābah, preferred the view of those who stated decisively that he was a Companion. This hadith supports that view, for he explicitly stated in it that he met the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

841 — “Gabriel, peace be upon him, came to him at the beginning of the revelation and taught him minor ablution and prayer. When he had finished the ablution, he took a handful of water and sprinkled his private parts with it.”

It was recorded by Ibn Mājah (1/172–173), al-Dāraquṭnī (p. 41), al-Ḥākim (3/217), al-Bayhaqī (1/161), and Aḥmad (4/161), through Ibn Lahīʿah, from ʿUqayl ibn Khālid, from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUrwah, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from his father Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with this wording.

I say: The narrators of this chain are all trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from Ibn Lahīʿah, who is weak because of his poor retention. However, Rushdayn ibn Saʿd corroborated him in Aḥmad and his son’s work (5/203), as well as in al-Dāraquṭnī; but he is as weak as Ibn Lahīʿah, so each of them strengthens the other. Moreover, it has supporting evidence in the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with the wording: “Gabriel came to me and said: ‘O Muhammad, when you perform minor ablution, sprinkle water.’”

It was recorded in abbreviated form by Ibn Mājah (1/173) and by al-Tirmidhī (1/71), whose wording this is. He said: “It is a singular hadith, and I heard Muhammad say: ‘Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Hāshimī is rejected in hadith.’”