and then all the camels become afflicted with mange?” He remained silent for a while, then said: “What caused the first one to become infected? There is no contagion, no Ṣafar, and no hāmah. Allah created every soul and decreed its life, its death, its afflictions, and its provision.”

It was recorded by Aḥmad (2/327), with this wording, al-Ṭaḥāwī (2/378), Abū ʿUbayd in Gharīb al-Ḥadīth (folio 56/1), and Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kinānī in al-Amālī (1/9/2), through ʿAbdullāh ibn Shubrumah, from Abū Zurʿah ibn ʿAmr ibn Jarīr, from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

This is an authentic chain according to Muslim’s criteria. However, ʿUmārah ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ differed from him and narrated it from Abū Zurʿah ibn ʿAmr ibn Jarīr, who said: “One of our associates narrated to us from Ibn Masʿūd that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, stood among us and said”—then he mentioned it. It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (2/21), al-Ṭaḥāwī as well, and Aḥmad (1/440). Saʿīd ibn Masrūq corroborated him, narrating it from ʿUmārah, from Abū Zurʿah, from a man among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, from Ibn Masʿūd, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording. This chain too is authentic.

Perhaps this unnamed man among the Companions was Abū Hurayrah, as in the first narration. If so, Abū Zurʿah sometimes narrated this hadith from Abū Hurayrah directly from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, without an intermediary; and at other times from him, from Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him. Abū Hurayrah has another hadith with the wording, “There is no contagion,” which has already preceded. Its opening portion is corroborated by the wording: “Let no sick one infect a healthy one.” It was recorded by al-Ṭaḥāwī (2/377), through al-Walīd ibn ʿUqbah al-Shaybānī, who said: Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt narrated to us from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Thaʿlabah ibn Yazīd al-Ḥimānī, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This chain is weak. Ibn Abī Thābit frequently practiced concealment in transmission, and Thaʿlabah ibn Yazīd was truthful but became forgetful, as stated in al-Taqrīb. The hadith has also been narrated in a more complete form; see: “No Ṣafar.”

1153 — “Three people will receive their reward twice: a man who had a slave-girl, disciplined her well and taught her well, then emancipated her and married her,”