and its narrators are reliable, apart from Ibrahim ibn Hani. Ibn ʿAdi said: “He is unknown and relates false reports.”

Al-Tayalisi (no. 2494), Ahmad (2/235), and al-Hakim (1/21) narrated, through Yahya ibn Abi Sulaym, who said: I heard ʿAmr ibn Maymun narrate from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet: “Shall I not direct you to a phrase beneath the Throne, from one of the treasures of Paradise? Say: ‘There is no might or power except through Allah.’ Allah, exalted is He, then says: ‘My servant has submitted and surrendered himself.’” Al-Hakim said: “It is authentic, and no hidden defect is known in it.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him, and it is as they said.

Kumayl ibn Ziyad also narrated it from Abu Hurayrah with the same wording. It was narrated by al-Tayalisi (no. 2456), Ahmad (2/520), al-Bazzar (p. 298, al-Zawaʾid), al-Hakim (1/517), and al-Bayhaqi in al-Shuʿab (1/368). Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.

I say: Ahmad’s chain of transmission, and one of al-Bazzar’s two chains, are authentic. As for the chain cited by al-Hakim and those of the others, it is narrated by Abu Ishaq from Kumayl, with the addition: “There is no refuge and no escape from Allah except to Him.”

I say: In my view, the soundness of this addition to the hadith is questionable, because Abu Ishaq—ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Sabiʿi—had suffered memory deterioration. Moreover, he practised tadlis, concealing a chain defect, and transmitted it using the ambiguous wording “from.” I have found another route for it: from Ibn Shihab, from Sulayman ibn Qadim, from Abu Hurayrah, with the same wording. Abu ʿArubah al-Harrani narrated it in Hadith al-Jazariyyin (fol. 41/2), but I do not know Sulayman ibn Qadim.

It also has another supporting report, from the hadith of Qays ibn Saʿd ibn ʿUbadah, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Shall I not direct you to one of the gates of Paradise: ‘There is no might or power except through Allah’?”