It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (4/231), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (1/4), al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (1/142/2), Abū al-Qāsim al-Mahrawānī in al-Fawāʾid al-Muntaqāh al-Ṣiḥāḥ (2/3/1), and the Sufi Ibn al-Ḥamāmī in Muntaqā min Masmūʿātihi (171/1); the latter three declared it authentic. It was also recorded by Rizq Allāh al-Ḥanbalī in Aḥādīth min Masmūʿātihi (1/2–2/1), Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥasan al-Nābulusī in al-Aḥādīth al-Sittah al-ʿIrāqiyyah (fol. 26/1), and al-Bayhaqī in al-Zuhd (fol. 83/2) and al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt (p. 491), through Khālid ibn Makhlad: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl narrated to us; Sharīk ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Namir narrated to me, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said—and he then cited it.
I say: This chain of transmission is weak. It is among the few chains criticized by the scholars in al-Bukhārī’s collection—may Allah Most High have mercy on him. In his biographical notice on Khālid ibn Makhlad al-Qaṭwānī, al-Dhahabī mentioned the scholars’ differing views concerning whether he was reliable or weak, and cited reports that Khālid alone narrated, including this one. He said: “This is an exceptionally singular hadith. Were it not for the awe inspired by al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ (!), I would count it among the rejected narrations of Khālid ibn Makhlad. This is because of its unusual wording, and because it is among the reports uniquely narrated by Sharīk, who was not a hadith master. This text has been narrated only through this chain. No one besides al-Bukhārī recorded it, and I do not think it is found in Musnad Aḥmad. There has been disagreement over ʿAṭāʾ: it was said that he was Ibn Abī Rabāḥ, but the correct view is that he was ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār.”
The hadith master cited these words, somewhat abridged, in al-Fatḥ (11/292–293), then said: “I say: It is certainly not in Musnad Aḥmad, and the categorical assertion that this text was narrated only through this chain is untenable. Furthermore, Sharīk—the teacher of Khālid’s teacher—is also subject to criticism. He is the narrator of the hadith of the Ascension, in which he added and omitted material, advanced and delayed details, and uniquely reported matters for which he was not corroborated. Yet the hadith has other routes, the sum of which indicates that it has a basis.
- One of them is from ʿĀʾishah. It was recorded by Aḥmad in al-Musnad (6/256) and in al-Zuhd, as well as by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah, and al-Bayhaqī in al-Zuhd, through ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Maymūn, from