I say: It also has an abbreviated route with similar wording, which will appear under the wording, “If you were to remain as you are,” no. 1976, together with a corroborating report from Anas, to appear under no. 1965.

1949 — “By Him in whose hand is my soul, in the poetry you address to them, it is as though you were showering them with arrows.”

Aḥmad transmitted it (3/456): Abū al-Yamān related to us; Shuʿayb informed us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām related to me that Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam informed him that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Aswad ibn ʿAbd Yaghūth informed him that Ubayy ibn Kaʿb informed him that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Some poetry is wisdom.”

Bashīr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb used to relate that Kaʿb ibn Mālik would relate that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said—and then he cited the foregoing wording.

All the narrators in its chain of transmission are among al-Bukhārī’s narrators, apart from Bashīr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb. I found no one who declared him reliable other than Ibn Ḥibbān. Al-Bukhārī mentioned in al-Tārīkh, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim in al-Jarḥ, that al-Zuhrī and Hishām ibn ʿUrwah narrated from him. Al-Ḥāfiẓ did not include him in al-Taʿjīl, although he met that work’s criteria. Al-Zuhrī also narrated it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb and from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb, each from Kaʿb, with similar wording. This has already been explained under: “The believer strives with his sword and his tongue.” It has preceded under no. 1631.

It also has a corroborating report from Anas, with the wording: “Leave him alone, O ʿUmar! For it is swifter against them than the shooting of arrows.” I have traced its sources in my Abridgment of the Muhammadan Characteristics, no. 210.

1950 — “By Him in whose hand is my soul, if you did not sin, Allah would remove you and bring a people who would sin, then seek Allah’s forgiveness, and He would forgive them.”