ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq say that Muḥjin ibn al-Adraʿ said … and he mentioned it with similar wording: “You are a community for whom I intend ease.” This is an authentic chain of transmission.

Abū Bishr differed from both of them, narrating: from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, from Rajāʾ ibn Abī Rajāʾ al-Bāhilī, from Muḥjin, with similar wording: “The best of your religion is that which is easiest.” He said this three times. It was recorded by al-Ṭayālisī (1296), al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (341), and Aḥmad (4/338 and 5/32).

I say: This Rajāʾ is known only through this chain of transmission, and no one declared him trustworthy apart from al-ʿIjlī and Ibn Ḥibbān. His inclusion in the chain seems unpreserved, for he is not mentioned in the narrations of Ḥammād and Kahmas cited above. And Allah knows best.

It has a supporting narration from Anas, attributed to the Prophet, with the addition: “The best worship is understanding.” Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr recorded it in al-Jāmiʿ (1/21) through Abū Sufyān al-Sarūjī, ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muṭarrif—the cousin of Wakīʿ—who said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿUdhrī narrated to us from Yūnus ibn Yazīd, from al-Zuhrī, from him. Abū Sufyān said: “Narrating from al-ʿUdhrī is disapproved of.”

I say: He is indicating that he is weak. He was included in al-Mīzān on account of this report, and it was said to be rejected. Al-Daylamī also recorded it through his route (2/115), but without the first half.

1636 — “Allah will question every shepherd about what was entrusted to his care: whether he safeguarded it or neglected it, until a man is questioned about his household.”