“Whoever wishes to look at a man who has already fulfilled his covenant, let him look at Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh.”

Ibn Saʿd recorded it (3/1/156): “Hishām Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭiyālisī informed us: Abū ʿAwānah narrated to us from Ḥuṣayn, from ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUtbah who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said …” and he mentioned the report.

I say: This is a missive ḥadīth with a sound chain of transmission; all of its narrators are trustworthy—men whose reports are accepted by the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim).

Moreover, Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā—the transmitter in the first route—also narrated it through a different chain and with a different wording:

“Whoever is pleased to look at a martyr walking upon the face of the earth, let him look at Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh.”

126 – “Whoever is pleased to look at a martyr walking upon the face of the earth, let him look at Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh.”

Al-Tirmidhī recorded it (2/302, Būlāq edition) from Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā al-Ṭalḥī—one of the descendants of Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh—through al-Ṣalt ibn Dīnār, from Abū Naḍrah, who said: Jābir ibn ʿAbdillāh said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say …,” and he mentioned it. Al-Tirmidhī remarked:

“This is a gharīb ḥadīth; we do not know it except through the narration of al-Ṣalt, and some scholars have spoken against al-Ṣalt ibn Dīnār and Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā because of their retention.”

I add: Upon close examination both of them are very weak, yet Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā was not the sole transmitter. This is suggested by al-Tirmidhī’s own words, for al-Ṭiyālisī said in his Musnad (1793): “Al-Ṣalt ibn Dīnār narrated to us—(then) Abū Naḍrah—” with the wording:

“Ṭalḥah passed by the Prophet ﷺ and he said, ‘A martyr walking upon the face of the earth.’”

Ibn Mājah likewise recorded it (125) from Wakīʿ: “Al-Ṣalt al-Azdī narrated it to us.”

Al-Wāḥidī also related it in al-Wasīṭ (3/7/121) from al-Ṣalt with wording similar to that of al-Tirmidhī.