“They lead you in prayer: if they perform it correctly, then it is to your credit and theirs; but if they err, then it is to your credit and held against them.” Al-Bukhari, Ahmad (2/355), and Ibn Hibban (375) recorded it with similar wording. Ibn Hibban also records (374) a corroborating report from Uqbah ibn Amir, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. It is cited in Sahih Abi Dawud (593).

1768 — “The Ansar are the inner garment, and the people are the outer garment. If the people were to take one valley or mountain pass, while the Ansar took another valley, I would take the valley of the Ansar. Were it not for the migration, I would have been one of the Ansar.”

Ibn Majah recorded it (164) through Abd al-Muhaymin ibn Abbas ibn Sahl ibn Sa'd, from his father, from his grandfather, who said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said this, and then related the hadith.

Al-Busiri said in al-Zawa'id (12/1): “This is a weak chain of transmission; its flaw lies with Abd al-Muhaymin ibn Abbas, while the remaining narrators in the chain are trustworthy. Al-Tirmidhi recorded it in al-Jami' from the hadith of Ubayy ibn Ka'b, except that he did not say, ‘The Ansar are the inner garment, and the people are the outer garment’; he said, ‘were to take’ instead of ‘were to face,’ while the rest is similar. He graded it a good hadith.”

I say: This hadith is very authentic. Al-Busiri did not do it justice when he cited only al-Tirmidhi’s hadith as corroboration, thereby giving the impression that it had no corroborating report other than that one. That is not the case. Al-Suyuti did even worse: he included it in al-Ziyadah 'ala al-Jami' al-Saghir (fol. 69/1), reporting it only through Ibn Majah from Sahl. He ought to have mentioned some corroborating reports demonstrating that it is authentic by virtue of corroborating evidence, even if some of their wording differed, as was generally his practice. I therefore considered it necessary to mention