1482 — “I was given these verses from the end of Sura al-Baqarah, from a treasure beneath the Throne, which had not been given to any prophet before me (and from which none after me will be given).”

It was narrated by Ahmad (5/883), Ibn Naṣr in Qiyām al-Layl (p. 65), al-Sarrāj in his Musnad (3/47/1), and al-Bayhaqī (1/213), from Abū Mālik al-Ashjaʿī, from Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, from Ḥudhayfah, as a report attributed to the Prophet with this wording.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to Muslim’s criteria. Al-Ḥākim attributed it to Muslim in al-Mustadrak (1/563), but did not give its wording. Rather, he merely referred to it at the end of the hadith of Ḥudhayfah that he transmitted through this continuous chain from him, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “We have been favoured over the people in three ways ...” He mentioned them, then said afterward: “And he mentioned another distinction.”

I say: This is certainly that distinction, for Ahmad, al-Sarrāj, and al-Bayhaqī mentioned it immediately after Muslim’s wording, in the wording cited above: “And I was given these verses ...” Ibn Khuzaymah also narrated the hadith in his Ṣaḥīḥ, as cited in Hidāyat al-Insān by Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī (folio 22/1).

Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh has another chain of transmission for this hadith: Manṣūr narrated it from Ribʿī, from Khirshah ibn al-Ḥurr, from al-Maʿrūr ibn Suwayd, from Abū Dharr, attributed to the Prophet with the same wording. One version adds: “That is, the two verses from the end of Sura al-Baqarah.” Ahmad narrated it (5/151–180).

I say: Its chain of transmission is also authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. Al-Ḥākim (1/562) also narrated it through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī, who said: Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ informed me, from Abū al-Zāhiriyyah, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from Abū Dharr, with the same wording. He said: “Authentic according to al-Bukhārī’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabī rebutted him, saying: “That is what he said, but al-Bukhārī did not rely on Muʿāwiyah; and Ibn Wahb narrated it from Muʿāwiyah as mursal.”