before your Lord, O Muhammad!” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then said … and he mentioned it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, meeting Muslim’s criteria. The hadith also has a supporting report from Ibn ʿAbbās, narrated by Baqiyyah from al-Zubaydī, from al-Zuhrī, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, from his father, with the same wording. Al-Baghawī narrated it in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (3/473, Maktab edition), but its chain is weak.

It has another route from Ibn ʿAbbās, which is likewise weak. Al-Bayhaqī narrated it in al-Zuhd (folios 50–51), where it contains rejected additions, including that the angel was Isrāfīl, and that he descended when the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, complained to Gabriel, peace be upon him, that by evening he did not even have a handful of barley meal. It also has another supporting report from ʿĀʾishah, whose chain is likewise weak. It states that the angel’s waist was level with the Kaʿbah. For this reason, I have included it and the preceding report in al-Ḍaʿīfah (2044 and 2045).

1003 — “O Allah, they are barefoot, so carry them; O Allah, they are unclothed, so clothe them; O Allah, they are hungry, so feed them.”

Abū Dāwūd (2747) narrated it from Ḥuyayy, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥubulī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, set out on the day of Badr with three hundred and fifteen men, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said … and he mentioned it. It further states: “So Allah granted him victory on the day of Badr. When they returned, not a single man among them had returned without a camel or two camels; they were clothed and satiated.”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ. There is some criticism of Ḥuyayy—who is Ḥuyayy ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Maʿāfirī—but it does not lower his hadith below the rank of good. Al-Taqrīb says: “Truthful, but prone to error.”