138). Al-Hakim (4/78) also narrated it from Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil, from al-Tufayl ibn Ubayy ibn Ka'b, from his father, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording but without the first sentence. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good hadith.” Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic!” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: Its chain of transmission in Ahmad is good, for Ahmad also has another authentic route to Ibn Aqil, and he is a narrator of good hadith. There are also reports on this subject from a number of other Companions. Whoever wishes to examine them may refer to Majma' al-Zawa'id; what we have mentioned is sufficient.

Note: The third sentence of the hadith does not occur in the Bulaq edition of al-Tirmidhi (2/324). We therefore relied in this documentation on the copy of Professor al-Da'as. It would have been appropriate for him to draw attention to this.

1769 — “Faith has seventy-odd gates. The lowest of them is removing something harmful from the road, and the highest is the declaration: There is no god worthy of worship but Allah.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (598), al-Tirmidhi (3/357—Tuhfah), Ibn Majah (57), Ahmad (2/445), and Abu Ubayd in al-Iman (no. 4, in my critical edition), through Sufyan, from Suhayl ibn Abi Salih, from Abdullah ibn Dinar, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet. Al-Bukhari’s wording, however, is like that of Jarir, cited below by Muslim. Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good and authentic hadith.”

I say: Jarir also corroborated Sufyan’s narration through Suhayl with the same chain, except that he said: “Seventy-odd or sixty-odd branches.” The rest is the same, except that he said, “the best of them,” in place of “the highest of them,” and added: