with this wording (2/493), except that he said, “greater in reward,” instead of “better.” As for al-Tirmidhī, his wording is: “Indeed, when a Muslim associates …,” and the rest is the same, except that he said: “… than the Muslim who …”

Second: al-Tirmidhī recorded it (3/319) through Shuʿbah, from Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, from Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb, from an elderly man among the Prophet’s Companions—whom he believed to be reporting it from the Prophet—and then cited it. He added: “Ibn ʿAdī—one of al-Tirmidhī’s shaykhs in this chain—said: ‘Shuʿbah considered him to be Ibn ʿUmar.’”

Third: Its chain of transmission in Ibn Mājah is not good, for he said: “ʿAlī ibn Maymūn al-Raqqī narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Yūsuf narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Yaḥyā ibn Waththāb, from Ibn ʿUmar.” This ʿAbd al-Wāḥid is known only through this chain of transmission for this hadith, and no one narrated from him except ʿAlī ibn Maymūn al-Raqqī, as al-Dhahabī stated, thereby indicating that he is unknown. Al-Ḥāfiẓ explicitly stated this in al-Taqrīb.

However, he was not alone in narrating it, for, as we have seen, al-Tirmidhī transmitted it through Shuʿbah, from al-Aʿmash. Likewise, al-Bukhārī transmitted it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (388), with precisely the wording that al-Ḥāfiẓ attributed to Ibn Mājah! Aḥmad also transmitted it (5022) through this route with both wordings: that of al-Bukhārī and that of Ibn Mājah. Its chain is like that of al-Tirmidhī, and it states: “From an elderly man among the Prophet’s Companions.” He said: “I believe him to be Ibn ʿUmar.” Ḥajjāj said: “Shuʿbah said: Sulaymān said, ‘It was Ibn ʿUmar.’”

This variation in the chain and text of the hadith does not impair it, since it is not substantive. Whether the Companion who narrated the hadith is named or not, and whether the wording is “greater in reward” or “better,” the chain is authentic: all its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators used by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Aḥmad then transmitted it (5/365) through Sufyān ibn Saʿīd, from al-Aʿmash, with the same report—like Shuʿbah’s narration in Aḥmad, but using Ibn Mājah’s wording. Ibn al-Jawzī also transmitted it in Jāmiʿ al-Masānīd (65/1, al-Maḥmūdiyyah).