“Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him. It is as they said, were it not that Muslim did not rely on Ibn ʿAjlān, but only included his reports as corroboration; thus, its chain of transmission is good.

1016 — “Do not pray facing a grave, nor perform prayer upon a grave.”

Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (3/145/2) from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaysān, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, in a report attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This Ibn Kaysān is Abū Mujāhid al-Marwazī, truthful but frequently mistaken, as al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb. The rest of its narrators are trustworthy. He then narrated it (3/150/1) from Rushdayn ibn Kurayb, from his father, from Ibn ʿAbbās, in a report attributed to the Prophet.

I say: Rushdayn is weak, as stated in al-Taqrīb, while the rest of its narrators are trustworthy. Thus, taken together, the two chains render the hadith good. Al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī also included it in al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtārah (65/62/2), through al-Ṭabarānī’s route. Al-Manāwī, citing al-Haythamī, deemed it defective because of Ibn Kaysān; but both of them overlooked the other route that strengthens it. Take note. The hadith also has two supporting narrations from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī and Anas, both recorded in my book Taḥdhīr al-Sājid (pp. 31–32, third edition). Thus, the hadith is authentic, and praise be to Allah for granting success.

1017 — “If faith were at the Pleiades, men from among these people would attain it”—meaning Salmān the Persian.

Al-Bukhārī (8/521) and Muslim (6/191–192) narrated it through Abū al-Ghayth, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: