Al-Bukhari (8/93—Nahdah), Muslim (1/139), al-Tirmidhi (3/330–331), Ibn Majah (2/573), al-Tahawi in al-Mushkil (1/154–156), Ahmad (1/386, 437–438, 445), and Abu Nuaym (4/152) narrated it through Abu Ishaq, from Amr ibn Maymun, from Abdullah, who said: “We were with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in a tent, and he said...” He then mentioned it. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, authentic hadith.”

Note: In Ziyadat al-Jami al-Saghir, al-Suyuti attributed it only to Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah. This is a gross omission! The same is found in al-Jami al-Kabir (1/15/2).

850 — “Leave me alone so long as I leave you alone; but when I tell you something, accept it from me. Those before you were ruined only because of their excessive questioning and their disagreements with their prophets.”

Al-Tirmidhi (3/379), Ibn Majah (1/4–5), and Ahmad (2/495) narrated it through several routes from al-Amash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. The wording is al-Tirmidhi’s, and he said: “A good, authentic hadith.”

I say: Its chain of transmission meets the criteria of the two Shaykhs. Al-Bukhari (9/77—Nahdah), Muslim (4/102), al-Nasai (2/2), and Ahmad (2/247, 258, 313, 428, 447–448, 457, 467, 482, 495, 503, 508, 517) also narrated it through numerous routes from Abu Hurayrah, with similar wording. Its sources are documented in al-Irwa (155, 313).

851 — “Do you claim that I will be among the last of you to die? Indeed, I shall be the first of you to die, and you will follow after me in separate groups, some of you destroying others.”