al-Jarawī said: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥassān narrated to us: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, apart from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Jarawī, who was one of al-Bukhārī’s teachers.

Ibn Mājah (1/313) and Aḥmad (6/89) also transmitted it by way of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, who said: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah narrated to us from him, in a hadith that will appear under no. 2532. Its wording is: “Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon those who keep the ranks connected. Whoever fills a gap, Allah raises him one degree thereby.” Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh is weak in his narrations from the Ḥijāzī narrators, and this is one of them.

Al-Ṭabarānī also transmitted it in al-Awsaṭ (1/32/2, Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn), from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Qawwās, who said: Muslim ibn Khālid al-Zanjī narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from ʿUrwah, with a similar complete wording. He said: “No one narrated it from al-Maqburī except Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, and no one narrated it from him except al-Zanjī; al-Qawwās alone narrated it.”

I say: I have not identified him at present. The rest of its narrators are trustworthy, apart from al-Zanjī, whose weakness lies in his retention. Al-Haythamī said: “Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Awsaṭ, and it contains Muslim ibn Khālid al-Zanjī, who is weak, although Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy.”

Then I found a corroborating report for the hadith, from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn Maryam, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ghānim ibn al-Aḥwaṣ, who heard Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Sammān say: I heard Abū Hurayrah say that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said it, with the wording of Ibn ʿAyyāsh, except that he said: “No servant joins a row except that Allah raises him one degree thereby, and the angels shower him with goodness.”