ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah, from ʿĀʾishah, the Mother of the Believers: Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, passed by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said—and he mentioned it with the wording—“Whoever wishes to look upon one freed from the Fire, let him look upon this man.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (no. 10), Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Istiʿāb (3/964), and likewise al-Ḥākim (3/61), who said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic!” Al-Dhahabī rejected this, saying: “I say: Ṣāliḥ was declared weak, and the chain is obscure.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ said of this Ṣāliḥ: “Abandoned.”

However, the hadith has a good supporting report from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, who said: “The name of Abū Bakr was ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to him”—and he mentioned it—“and so he was named ʿAtīq.” Ibn Ḥibbān (2171), Ibn al-Aʿrābī in al-Muʿjam (41/2), al-Dūlābī in al-Kunā (1/7), al-Ṭabarānī (no. 7), Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Naṣr al-Qārī in Ḥadīth Abī Bakr ibn Ṭalḥah (165/1), Hibat Allāh al-Ṭabarī in al-Fawāʾid al-Ṣiḥāḥ (1/134/1–2), and Ibn ʿAsākir in Ḥadīth ʿAbd al-Khallāq al-Harawī wa-Ghayrihi (235/1) recorded it through various routes from Ḥammād ibn Yaḥyā, who said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Ziyād ibn Saʿd, from ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr, from his father.

Al-Ṭabarī said: “It is a singular hadith, with a connected chain, from Sufyān; I know of no one who narrated it from him other than Ḥāmid ibn Yaḥyā al-Balkhī.” I say: He is truthful, as Ibn Abī Ḥātim related from his father (1/2/301); Abū Zurʿah also narrated from him, and Abū Zurʿah narrates only from a trustworthy narrator. Thus, the chain is good, since all those above him are trustworthy and are among the narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. After this, I do not know the basis for Abū Ḥātim’s statement, as reported by his son in al-ʿIlal (2/386):