of it as much as she wished, then returned it to him. He milked into it again in the name of Allah, then sent me with it to his wives. Whenever one of them drank from it, I returned it to him; he would then milk again in the name of Allah and fill it. Then he said: ‘Give it to the guest.’ So I gave it to him, and he said, ‘In the name of Allah,’ and drank from it as much as Allah willed. Then he gave it to me. I did not hesitate to place my lips where his lips had been, and I drank a drink sweeter than honey and more fragrant than musk. Then he said: ‘...’ and he went on to relate it.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission; all of its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators covered in al-Tahdhīb.
1978 — “The length of one of your whips in Paradise is better than this world and all that is in it.” He then recited: “Whoever is kept away from the Fire and admitted into Paradise has surely triumphed. The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion.”
It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (3017 and 3288), al-Dārimī (2/332–333), al-Ḥākim (2/299), and Aḥmad (2/438), through the route of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, who said: Abū Salamah narrated to me from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Tirmidhī said: “A good, authentic hadith.”
Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criterion.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him!
I say: Its chain is only good, due to the disagreement concerning Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr. This is why Muslim recorded him only in conjunction with another transmitter.
The first part of it also has other chains from Abū Hurayrah with similar wording:
- Al-Khazraj ibn ʿUthmān al-Saʿdī said: Abū Ayyūb, the freedman of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, narrated to us from him, in a report attributed to the Prophet: “The length of one of your whips in Paradise is better than this world and another like it along with it; the length of one of your bows in Paradise is better than this world and another like it along with it; and the head-covering of a woman in Paradise is better than this world and another like it along with it.” He said: I asked, “O Abū Hurayrah, what is the naṣīf?” He replied: “The khimār (head-covering).”