I say: It is as he said, were it not that Abu Ishaq—namely, al-Subayʿi, ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah—practised tadlis, and used the ambiguous “from” formula in all the routes from him; moreover, he had suffered memory deterioration. I therefore reserve judgment regarding its authenticity, after having followed others in declaring it authentic for some time. And Allah knows best.
1274 — “When one of you expectorates, let him not do so in front of his face or to his right. Rather, let him spit to his left or beneath his left foot.”
Ahmad (3/58, 88, and 93), al-Bukhari (1/404–405), Muslim (2/76), and Ibn Majah (1/256–257) narrated it through several routes from Ibn Shihab, from Humayd ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAwf, from Abu Hurayrah and Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, who informed him that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, saw some phlegm on the wall of the mosque. He took a pebble and scraped it off, then said … He then cited it.
1275 — “I am not of this world, nor is it of me. I was sent while the Hour and I race one another.”
Al-Diya narrated it in al-Mukhtarah (1/486): Abu al-Muʿammar Baqaʾ ibn ʿUmar ibn Hand—[the original reads: Hanadh; the adopted reading is from Takmilat al-Ikmal]—read to him in Baghdad that Abu Ghalib Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Banna informed them; Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hasnun al-Narsi narrated to us; Abu Ibrahim Musa ibn ʿIsa ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Siraj narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah—that is, Ibn Abi Dawud—narrated to us; Abu al-Tahir Ahmad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Siraj narrated to us; Bishr ibn Bakr narrated to us, from al-Awzaʿi, from Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd Allah, who said:
Anas ibn Malik came to al-Walid ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, and al-Walid asked him, “What did you hear from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, concerning the Hour?” He related that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: He then cited it.
He then narrated it through another route, from Abu al-Mughirah, from al-Awzaʿi, with the wording: “You and the Hour are like these two.” Ibn ʿAsakir (3/76/1) also narrated it with the first wording: Abu Ghalib ibn