ibn al-Miqdām ibn Shurayḥ ibn Hānī, from al-Miqdām, from his father, from Hānī, who, when he came as part of a delegation to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “O Messenger of Allah, what earns Paradise?” He then mentioned it.

Al-Ḥākim said: “It is a sound hadith, with no discrediting hidden defect.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and it is as they said. This is why Ibn Ḥibbān included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1937 and 1938). One version reads: “Adhere to pleasant speech, extending greetings of peace, and feeding people.” This version is anomalous, since it conflicts with the preceding one, which is supported by a number of reliable narrators, whereas this anomalous version was reported by only one of them.

1940 — “The Muslims will use the bows, arrows, and shields of Gog and Magog as fuel for seven years.”

Ibn Mājah recorded it (4076): Hishām ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah narrated to us; Ibn Jābir narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Ṭāʾī, who said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr narrated to me from his father, that he heard al-Nawwās ibn Samʿān say—then he mentioned it as a hadith attributed directly to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

I say: This is an authentic chain according to Muslim’s criteria, apart from Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, who meets al-Bukhārī’s criteria. Nevertheless, he has been criticized because he was susceptible to prompting. Yet he has supporting transmission. Al-Tirmidhī said (2/37–38): ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr narrated to us: al-Walīd ibn Muslim and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir informed us—the narration of one of them being incorporated into that of the other—from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir, through the same chain.

In his collection, it appears as part of the lengthy hadith of al-Nawwās concerning the emergence of the False Messiah, Gog and Magog, and the coming of the Hour upon the worst of creation. Muslim also recorded it (8/198–199) with this chain used by al-Tirmidhī, but did not give its wording; rather, he referred to an earlier wording, which he had narrated through Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb: al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir narrated to me; Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Ṭāʾī narrated to me ... the hadith in its entirety, except for the hadith in question. However, Imam Muslim alluded to it in his statement: