Ibn Qatan’s name was ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā, as al-Ḥāfiẓ related from al-Dimyāṭī. However, he did not mention the chain of transmission for this report. This mursal hadith provides strong corroboration for it.

1858 — “He was buried in the soil from which he was created.”

Abū Nuʿaym narrated it in Akhbār Iṣfahān (2/304), as did al-Khaṭīb in al-Mūḍiḥ (2/104), through ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā: Yaḥyā al-Bakkāʾ related to us from Ibn ʿUmar that an Abyssinian man was buried in Medina, whereupon the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said this.

I say: This chain of transmission is weak. Yaḥyā al-Bakkāʾ—who is Yaḥyā ibn Muslim al-Baṣrī—is weak. The same applies to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā, namely al-Kharrāz al-Baṣrī; and it was solely on his account that al-Haythamī deemed the report defective (3/42), after attributing it to al-Ṭabarānī’s al-Kabīr.

It has a corroborating report from the hadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Nujayḥ: My father related to us from Anīs ibn Abī Yaḥyā, from his father, from Abū Saʿīd, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, passed through Medina and saw a group digging a grave. He asked about it, and they replied: “An Abyssinian man arrived and then died.” The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “There is no god but Allah! He was brought from his land and sky to the soil from which he was created.”

Al-Bazzār narrated it (no. 842, Kashf al-Astār; p. 91, Ibn Ḥajar’s Zawāʾid) and said: “We know of no narration from Abū Saʿīd except through this chain of transmission; Anīs and his father are both acceptable.”

I say: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar is weak, and I do not know his father. It also has another corroborating report, similar in wording, from Abū al-Dardāʾ. Al-Haythamī said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and its chain includes al-Aḥwaṣ ibn Ḥakīm. Al-ʿIjlī declared him trustworthy, whereas the majority deemed him weak.”