in a note that al-Tirmidhi said: “Its chain of transmission is good and strong!” This, as you have seen, was Ibn Kathir’s own statement. The Shaykh was unable to reconcile in his mind the fact that Ibn Kathir could deem the chain strong while finding the text of the hadith objectionable. Yet this is well known and common among the scholars, and thus required clarification, even though we have already established the error in his finding the text objectionable.
1736 — “The first company to enter Paradise will be in the form of the moon on the night of the full moon, and the second will be like the most beautiful shining star in the sky. Each man among them will have two wives, and each wife will wear seventy garments, through which the marrow of her shin will be visible.”
Al-Tirmidhi narrated it (2/85 and 87) through Firas and Fudayl ibn Marzuq, both from Atiyyah, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said this. In the first place, he said: “A good, authentic hadith.” In the other, he said: “A good hadith.” The latter is closer to the mark, for Atiyyah—al-Awfi—is weak. However, he was not alone in narrating it, as will follow. Ahmad also narrated it (3/16): Yahya ibn Adam told us: Fudayl told us, from Ata, who said: Abu Sa'id al-Khudri told us this. Thus it reads “Ata,” but I think it is a corruption of “Atiyyah”—and Allah knows best. Al-Baghawi also narrated it from him in Ibn al-Ja'd’s Hadith collection (9/1).
Sa'id ibn Sulayman narrated it: Fudayl ibn Marzuq told us, from Abu Ishaq, from Amr ibn Maymun, from Abdullah, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said this, adding: “Just as a red drink can be seen in a white glass vessel.” Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (10321), and Abu Nu'aym narrated it from him in Sifat al-Jannah (2/135/2001), through two routes from Ibn Sulayman with this wording. Al-Mundhiri said in al-Targhib (4/261): “Al-Tabarani narrated it with an authentic chain of transmission, and al-Bayhaqi with a good chain of transmission!” Ibn al-Qayyim said (1/318): “This chain meets the criteria for an authentic hadith.”