the route of Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from al-Qaʿqāʿ ibn Ḥakīm, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet. Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a good, singular, authentic hadith.” Abū Nuʿaym said: “It is well established and well known through al-Qaʿqāʿ’s narration from Abū Ṣāliḥ.”

I say: All its narrators are trustworthy, except that Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān had some weakness in his retention. Al-Dhahabī said of him: “He was of average retention.” Thus, his hadith is good, Allah willing. A number of scholars, including Ibn Ḥibbān, authenticated his reports; indeed, Ibn Ḥibbān included many hadiths from him, among them this hadith, numbered 1613.

961 — “You do not return to Allah with anything better than that which came forth from Him—that is, the Quran.”

Al-Tirmidhī narrated it (2/150): Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us, from Muʿāwiyah, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith, from Zayd ibn Arṭāh, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, attributed to the Prophet in mursal form.

I say: Al-Tirmidhī made no comment on it. Al-Bukhārī said in The Acts of the Servants, p. 91: “This report is not authentic because it is mursal and discontinuous.”

I say: However, it has been transmitted through a connected chain. Al-Ḥākim narrated it (1/555), and al-Bayhaqī narrated it from him in The Names and Attributes (236), through Salamah ibn Shabīb, who said: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated to me; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us, from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith, from Zayd ibn Arṭāh, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, attributed to the Prophet with this wording. Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Bayhaqī endorsed him, and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.