When I came across this attestation of reliability from such an imām, I relied upon it, since he was more firmly grounded in this field than Ibn Ḥibbān, while not differing from him in substance concerning this biographical entry. Accordingly, I judged the hadith to be authentic and retracted my earlier assessment that it was weak. I have drawn attention to this in my second critical edition of al-Mishkāt. And Allah knows best.

929 — “Indeed, Allah will question the servant on the Day of Resurrection, until He says: ‘What prevented you, when you saw wrongdoing, from condemning it?’ Then, when Allah supplies a servant with his answer, he will say: ‘My Lord, I put my trust in You, but I feared the people.’”

It was reported by Ibn Mājah (4017), Ibn Ḥibbān (1845), al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Jawharī in Fawāʾid Muntaqāh (f. 29/1), al-Ḥumaydī likewise in his Musnad (739), and Ibn ʿAsākir (17/345/2), through ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, who said that Nahār—a man of ʿAbd al-Qays who lived among Banū al-Najjār and was spoken of as virtuous and righteous—told him that he heard Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī say: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say it.”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy, and are narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from Nahār al-ʿAbdī. Ibn Khirāsh said: “Truthful.” Ibn Ḥibbān included him among the trustworthy narrators, but said: “He makes mistakes.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is Ibn Maʿmar ibn Ḥazm, Abū Ṭawālah, a trustworthy narrator from among the narrators of the two Shaykhs.

930 — “Who will take these words from me, act upon them, or teach them to someone who will act upon them?”

Abū Hurayrah said: “I said, ‘I will, O Messenger of Allah.’ So he took my hand, counted five, and said:”