1037 — “He is a leading figure among his people, and I seek to win them over through him.”

Ibn Wahb narrated it in al-Jāmiʿ (p. 5), saying: ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me that Bakr ibn Sawādah related to him that Abū Sālim al-Jayshānī related to him, from Abū Dharr, that the Messenger of Allah said to him: “What do you think of Juʿayl?” He said: “I replied, ‘A poor man, one like many others.’ He asked, ‘What do you think of so-and-so?’ I said, ‘A chief among the chiefs.’ He said, ‘Juʿayl is better than an earthful—or thousands, or something to that effect—of so-and-so.’ I said, ‘Messenger of Allah, so-and-so is as you have described, yet you treat him as you do?’ He said...” Then he mentioned the words quoted above.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to Muslim’s criteria. Abū Sālim al-Jayshānī was named Sufyān ibn Hānīʾ. (See addendum no. 32/12.)

1038 — “These grounds on which you disparage one another are not a reproach against anyone. You are but Adam’s children, a scant measure that you have not filled. No one has superiority over another except through faith or righteous deeds. It is enough for a man to be obscene, foul-mouthed, miserly, and cowardly.”

ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb narrated it in al-Jāmiʿ (p. 6), and from him al-Ṭaḥāwī narrated it in al-Mushkil (4/365). Ibn Jarīr likewise narrated it in al-Tafsīr (26/89), as did al-Rūyānī in his Musnad (49/2) and Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Naqqūr in al-Qirāʾah ʿalā al-Wazīr (5/1): Ibn Lahīʿah informed me, from al-Ḥārith ibn Yazīd, from ʿAlī ibn Rabāḥ, from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Juhanī, who attributed it to the Prophet.

I say: This chain is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria, except for Ibn Lahīʿah. His hadith are sound when one of the narrators named ʿAbd Allah reports from him, and this is among the reports of ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb from him; thus, it is authentic. An explanation of this may be found in his biographical entry in al-Tahdhīb. Aḥmad also narrated it (4/158): Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah informed us of it. However, he said, “your lineages,” in place of “these grounds on which you disparage one another.” Al-Bayhaqī likewise narrated it in Shuʿab al-Īmān (2/90/2).