is good; and when it is combined with the route through Zamʿah, the hadith, taken as a whole, is authentic, Allah willing.

843 — “Gabriel and Michael came to me. Gabriel sat on my right and Michael on my left. Gabriel said, ‘Recite in one mode.’ Michael said, ‘Ask for more.’ He then said, ‘Recite the Quran in two modes.’ [Michael said, ‘Ask for more.’] This continued until he reached seven modes, [and he said:] ‘Each is sufficient and healing.’”

Al-Nasāʾī recorded it (1/50), as did al-Ṭaḥāwī in al-Mushkil (4/189) and Aḥmad (5/114, 122), through Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, from Anas ibn Mālik, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, who said:

“Nothing had troubled me since I embraced Islam except that I recited a verse which another person recited differently from the way I did. So I said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, taught it to me.’ My companion said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, taught it to me.’ We then went to him, and I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, did you teach me such-and-such a verse?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ My companion said, ‘Did you teach it to me in such-and-such a manner?’ He replied, ‘Yes. Gabriel came to me …’” He then related the hadith.

I say: This is an authentic chain meeting the conditions of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Some narrators inserted ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit between Anas and Ubayy. It also has other routes from Ubayy. Sulaymān ibn Ṣurad al-Khuzāʿī narrated it from him with similar wording, adding at its end: “If you say ghafūran raḥīman (All-Forgiving, Most Merciful), or say samīʿan ʿalīman (All-Hearing, All-Knowing), or ʿalīman samīʿan (All-Knowing, All-Hearing), Allah is likewise—so long as you do not end a verse of punishment with mercy, or a verse of mercy with punishment.”

Abū Dāwūd recorded it in his Sunan (1/232), as did al-Ṭaḥāwī and Aḥmad (5/125). I say: This chain too is authentic. This al-Khuzāʿī is a well-known Companion; thus, it is a Companion’s narration from another Companion, like the preceding one.