1348 — “You will most certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, span by span, cubit by cubit, and fathom by fathom, so that if one of them entered a lizard’s hole, you would enter it; and if one of them had intercourse with his mother in the road, you would do the same.”

Al-Dulabi narrated it in al-Kuna (2/30), and al-Hakim (4/455), through Isma‘il ibn Abi Uways, from his father, from Abu ‘Urwah Musa ibn Maysarah al-Daylami and his nephew Thawr al-Daylami ibn Zayd, from ‘Ikrimah, from Ibn ‘Abbas, attributing it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He said: “I only know that both of them narrated to me the very same report from Abu al-Ghayth Salim, the freedman of Ibn Muti‘, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

Al-Hakim does not have the words: “He said: ‘I only know that both of them …’” He declared it authentic, and al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: Its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih, apart from Musa ibn Maysarah al-Daylami, who is trustworthy; moreover, he has corroboration. Abu Uways was named ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Uways al-Asbahi. Although Muslim relied on him, there is some weakness in him, and likewise in his son Isma‘il. However, the latter has been corroborated. Ibn Nasr narrated in al-Sunnah (13): Muhammad ibn Yahya narrated to us: Isma‘il ibn Aban al-Warraq informed us: Abu Uways narrated to us, from Thawr ibn Zayd, from ‘Ikrimah, with it.

Al-Bazzar said in his Musnad (235, al-Zawa’id): Muhammad ibn ‘Umar ibn Hiyaj al-Kufi narrated to us: Isma‘il ibn Subayh narrated to us: Abu Uways narrated to us, from Thawr ibn Zayd, from ‘Ikrimah, with it. He said: “We know it only through this chain of transmission. Thawr was a trustworthy Medinan, and it is a good chain of transmission.”

I say: It is as he said, if Allah Most High wills: it is a good chain of transmission, in light of what you have learned concerning Abu Uways; all its remaining narrators are trustworthy. Indeed, the hadith is authentic, for it has a corroborating report, similar in wording, from the hadith of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amr, which al-Tirmidhi and al-Hakim (1/129) narrated through a weak chain of transmission, as I explained in Takhrij al-Mishkat (171). It also has another corroborating report in al-Majma‘ (7/261).