and: “Harithah was the most dutiful member of this Ummah toward his mother.” Ma‘mar also narrated it with a connected chain, from al-Zuhri, from ‘Amrah, from Aishah, with this addition, worded: “He was the most dutiful of people toward his mother.” Ahmad (6/151–152), al-Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah (3/420, al-Maktab copy), and Ibn al-Najjar in Dhayl al-Tarikh (10/134/2) transmitted it through the route of ‘Abd al-Razzaq, who said: “Ma‘mar informed us,” with this chain.

In one narration of ‘Abd al-Razzaq: “I slept and saw myself in Paradise, where I heard the voice of a reciter reciting …” The hadith is otherwise similar. Ahmad (166–167) and Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilyah (1/6/356) transmitted it, and he said: “Ibn Abi ‘Atiq narrated it from al-Zuhri, from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayrah, similarly.”

914 — “The father is the middle gate of Paradise.”

Al-Tayalisi transmitted it in his Musnad (no. 981): Shu‘bah narrated to us from ‘Ata’ ibn al-Sa’ib, from Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami, from Abu al-Darda’, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say it. Ahmad (5/196), Ibn Majah (2089), and al-Hakim (4/152) likewise transmitted it through another route from Shu‘bah with this chain. Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and it is as they said.

Sufyan al-Thawri corroborated him, saying: ‘Ata’ narrated to us with this chain. Its wording is: “‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami related to me that a man among us was instructed by his mother to marry. When he married, she instructed him to separate from her. So he travelled to Abu al-Darda’ and asked him about that. He replied: ‘I am not one to command you to divorce her, nor am I one to command you to’