“This ḥadīth is good and singular through this line of transmission from Ibn Masʿūd.”

I say: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq is unanimously judged weak, yet the report is strengthened by two corroborating narrations—one from Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī and the other from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar.

As for the report of Abū Ayyūb, it comes through ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī informed me that
“the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, on the night he was taken on the Night Journey, passed by Abraham. Abraham asked, ‘Who is with you, O Gabriel?’ He replied, ‘Muḥammad is with me.’ Abraham then said to him, ‘Instruct your community to plant plentifully in Paradise, for its soil is pure and its expanse vast.’ He was asked, ‘What is the planting of Paradise?’ He answered, ‘Lā ḥawla wa-lā quwwata illā bi-llāh (there is no might and no power except with Allah).’”

Aḥmad recorded it (5/418), as did Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī in al-Fawāʾid (6/65/1) and al-Ṭabarānī, as cited in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (10/97). Al-Haythamī comments: “Aḥmad’s transmitters are the men relied upon by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, except for ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. He is trustworthy (thiqa); no one criticised him, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared him reliable.”

I add: On the strength of that declaration, Ibn Ḥibbān included this ḥadīth in his Ṣaḥīḥ, as indicated in al-Targhīb (2/265), where it is also attributed to Ibn Abī al-Dunyā alongside Aḥmad, and he says, “Its isnād is good.”

In my view this requires further scrutiny, for we have repeatedly pointed out that Ibn Ḥibbān’s judgments of reliability are somewhat lenient. Nonetheless