(1508), Ibn Ḥibbān (2289), al-Ḥākim (4/72), and al-Ṭayālisī (951)—from whom al-Bayhaqī also narrated it in Maʿrifat al-Sunan (p. 29)—as well as Aḥmad (4/81 and 83) and Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (9/64), through Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from al-Zuhrī, from Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAwf, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Azhar, from Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. Al-Zuhrī was asked, “What accounts for that?” He replied, “Sound judgment.” Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.” Al-Dhahabī agreed.
I say: Muslim did not narrate anything from this Ibn ʿAwf, so it meets the criteria of al-Bukhārī alone. As for Ibn al-Azhar, the scholars did not mark him as being among the narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim; however, al-Ḥāfiẓ explained in his biography in al-Tahdhīb that he deserved to be so marked. Whoever wishes may consult his remarks. Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim then reported it (1509) from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah; and from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān; and from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said ... and he mentioned it.
I say: This chain of transmission is extremely weak. For this Muḥammad—the Medinan judge and brother of ʿAbd Allāh—is very weak, despite his contradicting Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, who is trustworthy. Thus, no reliance can be placed upon it.
1698 — “The distance between two doorposts in Paradise is a journey of forty years.”
It has been reported in hadiths from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, Muʿāwiyah ibn Ḥaydah, ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām.
- As for the hadith of Abū Saʿīd, Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us from Darrāj, from Abū al-Haytham, from him. It was reported by Aḥmad (3/29), Abū Yaʿlā (1/349), and Abū Nuʿaym in Ṣifat al-Jannah (2/124/1).