“Ahmad and Abu Ya‘la narrated it, and its chain is good, as noted above. Ahmad’s chain includes Jisr, who is weak.” Earlier (10/66), he also stated: “Among Abu Ya‘la’s narrators is Muhtasib Abu ‘A’idh: Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy, while Ibn ‘Adi deemed him weak. The rest of its narrators are narrators of the Sahih, apart from al-Fadl ibn al-Sabah, who is trustworthy.”

The hadith has also come through another route, with the wording “three” instead of “seven,” on the authority of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Umar, Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, and Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Juhani.

1 — As for the hadith of Ibn ‘Umar, al-Tayalisi (1845) said: Al-‘Umari narrated to us from Nafi‘, who said:

“A man came to Ibn ‘Umar and said, ‘Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman, did you see the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, with these very eyes of yours?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ He asked, ‘And did you speak to him with these very tongues of yours?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ He asked, ‘And did you pledge allegiance to him with these very hands of yours?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ The man said, ‘Blessed are you, Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman!’ He said, ‘Shall I not tell you something I heard from him? I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “Blessedness is for the one who sees me and believes in me; and blessedness, three times over, is for the one who does not see me yet believes in me.”’”

I say: This al-‘Umari is weak, but the following reports support his hadith.

2 — As for the hadith of Abu Sa‘id, Darraj narrates it from Abu al-Haytham, from him, attributing it to the Prophet, with the same wording. Ibn Hibban (2302), Ahmad (3/71), and al-Khatib in al-Tarikh (4/91) recorded it.

3 — As for the hadith of Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Juhani, Muhammad ibn Ishaq narrates it: Yazid ibn Abi Habib narrated to me from Marthad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Yazani, from Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Juhani, who said:

“While we were with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, two riders appeared. When he saw them, he said, ‘Two men of Kindah, of Madhhij.’ They came to him, and they were men of Madhhij. One of them approached him to pledge allegiance to him. When he took his hand, the man said, ‘Messenger of Allah, what will be for one who sees you, believes in you, affirms you as truthful, and follows you?’ He said, ‘Blessedness is for him.’ He then passed his hand over the man’s hand, and the man departed.

Then the other came forward and took his hand to pledge allegiance to him. He said, ‘Messenger of Allah, what will be for one who believes in you, affirms you as truthful, and follows you, yet has not seen you?’ He said, ‘Blessedness is for him; then blessedness is for him; then blessedness is for him.’ He then passed his hand over the man’s hand, and the man departed.”