“I was walking with Buraydah al-Aslamī,” and he then related the hadith attributed to the Prophet, except that he said: “Then those who follow them,” three times. In another version, it says: “Four times.” This was perhaps an error on the part of Ibn Salamah, for he was subject to occasional lapses of this sort.

All the narrators in its chain are reliable and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mawlah—vocalized with fatḥahs (a-vowel marks), as stated in al-Taqrīb. Al-Khulāṣah, however, gives its first letter a ḍammah (u-vowel mark) and the wāw and lām fatḥahs. Ibn Ḥibbān declared him reliable, but, as al-Dhahabī said, no one other than Abū Naḍrah narrated from him; thus, he is unknown. In al-Taqrīb, he is graded “acceptable.” The hadith is therefore good on account of corroborating evidence, since it has supporting reports among those mentioned above.

ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “A man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him: ‘Which people are best?’ He replied: ‘The generation to which I belong, then the second, then the third.’”

Aḥmad recorded it (6/156): Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī related to us, from Zāʾidah, from al-Suddī, from ʿAbd Allāh al-Bahī, from her. This is a good chain of transmission. Muslim also recorded it (7/186) from Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī through the same chain. Al-Ṭabarānī narrated something similar from Saʿīd ibn Tamīm, stating that he was the one who asked the question, and adding after the third generation: “I said, ‘Then what, O Messenger of Allah?’ He said: ‘Then there will be people who swear without being asked to swear, testify without being asked to testify, and are entrusted but do not discharge their trusts.’” Al-Haythamī said (10/19): “Its narrators are reliable.”

1842 — “The best marriage is the easiest.”

It was narrated by Abū Dāwūd (2117), Ibn Ḥibbān (1257, 1262, and 1281), and al-Quḍāʿī (100/1–2), from Muḥammad ibn Salamah, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, from Yazīd ibn Abī Anīsah, from Yazīd ibn