Ahmad also narrated it (3/29). There are also reports on this subject from Abu Dharr and others; consult al-Majmaʿ if you wish. The hadith of Abu Dharr was narrated by al-Tayalisi in his Musnad (480): Shuʿbah narrated to us, saying: al-Aʿmash informed us, saying: I heard Mundhir al-Thawri relate from his companions, from Abu Dharr, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw two sheep butting one another and said, “O Abu Dharr, do you know what they are butting one another over?” I said, “No.” He said, “But your Lord knows, and He will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection.”

I say: This chain of transmission is authentic. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from Mundhir’s companions—Mundhir being Ibn Yaʿla al-Thawri—for they are unnamed. Yet this does not detract from it, since they are a group of Successors whose anonymity is offset by their number, as al-Hafiz al-Sakhawi pointed out in cases other than this hadith. Ibn Abi al-Dunya also narrated it: Abu Khaythamah narrated to us; Jarir narrated to us from al-Aʿmash, with the same report.

1589 — “Every Prophet has a pool, and they will vie with one another in boasting over which of them has the greatest number of those who come to drink. I hope from Allah that I will have the greatest number of them.”

Al-Bukhari narrated it in al-Tarikh (1/1/44), as did al-Tirmidhi (3/299–300), Ibn Abi ʿAsim—as cited in Ibn Kathir’s al-Nihayah (1/351)—and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (6881), through Saʿid ibn Bashir, from Qatadah, from al-Hasan, from Samurah, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said it. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A singular hadith”—and in some copies: “good, singular”—“Al-Ashʿath ibn ʿAbd al-Malik also narrated this hadith from al-Hasan, from the Prophet ﷺ in mursal form, without mentioning Samurah; and this is more sound.”

I say: What is found in the first copy—that is, its being described as singular only—is closer to what is correct, and this is the version cited