“Two Bedouins came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. One of them said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, which people are best?’ He replied: ‘Blessed is the one whose life is long and whose deeds are good.’ The other asked: ‘Which deed is best?’ He replied: ‘That you depart …’”—the hadith. He also said: “Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated it from ʿAmr ibn Qays similarly.”

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission; its narrators are trustworthy. A corroborating transmission through Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ was recorded by Aḥmad (4/190): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from ʿAmr ibn Qays, through the same chain, with similar wording. Ibn Ḥibbān (2317) also recorded its second half, and al-Tirmidhī recorded it in full, though in separate places (2/52 and 242). Ḥassān ibn Nūḥ also corroborated him in narrating it from ʿAmr ibn Qays through the same chain; Aḥmad recorded this (4/188). Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ and Ḥassān ibn Nūḥ are both trustworthy as well.

The hadith also has a corroborating report from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording. It was recorded by al-Bukhārī in Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād (pp. 80–81), Ibn Ḥibbān (2318), Ibn al-Sunnī in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa-al-Laylah (no. 2), as well as al-Bazzār (pp. 294–295) and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (20/107/212), through Ibn Thawbān, from his father, from Makḥūl, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from Mālik ibn Yukhāmir, from him.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā also reported it, as cited in al-Targhīb (2/228). As for his statement: “Blessed is the one whose life is long and whose deeds are good,”