“It is authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and we know of no hidden defect in it.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and it is as they said.

1516 — “Allah sent me as one who conveys the message; He did not send me as one who makes things difficult.”

Muslim (4/194–195) and al-Tirmidhi (2/231) recorded it through Maʿmar, who said: Ayyub informed me that Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “Do not tell your wives that I chose you.” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then said to her… and he cited it.

Both recorded it at the end of Ibn Abbas’s hadith concerning the Prophet’s, peace and blessings be upon him, abstention from his wives for a month. This chain is apparently disconnected, because Ayyub—who is Ibn Abi Tamimah al-Kaysani—did not live to meet Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. Muslim did not include it independently, but only as a subsidiary addition to Ibn Abbas’s hadith, as occurred here. Likewise, al-Tirmidhi’s subsequent statement, “A good, authentic hadith,” refers only to Ibn Abbas’s hadith.

I have found a corroborating report for the hadith cited in the heading, through Abu al-Zubayr from Jabir, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. Ahmad recorded it (3/328). Its chain meets Muslim’s criteria, except that Abu al-Zubayr practised tadlis and narrated it using an ambiguous form of transmission. Perhaps, then, the hadith is good in view of the two chains taken together. And Allah knows best.

1517 — “Few of my Ummah are those who reach seventy.”

Ibn al-Durays recorded it in Hadiths of Muslim ibn Ibrahim al-Farahidi (5/1), and al-ʿUqayli in The Weak Narrators (56), from Bahr ibn Kunayz, from Qatadah, from Anas ibn Malik, attributed to the Prophet. Al-ʿUqayli cited it in this Bahr’s biographical entry and said: