“And it is more authentic.”

I say: Nevertheless, the hadith is authentic on account of the corroborating report mentioned above. It has another corroborating report, which al-Dāraquṭnī narrated from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, from al-Walīd ibn Sulaymān, who said: I heard Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd say: I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĀʾish, a Companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say—and he mentioned it in similar wording. He said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.”

I say: Regarding this Ibn ʿĀʾish, al-Taqrīb states: “It is said that he was a Companion. Abū Ḥātim said: Whoever states in his narration, ‘I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,’ has erred.”

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim practised the equalizing form of concealment in transmission. It also has other corroborating reports, some of which are in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and are documented in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd under nos. (2031–2033). One of them will come under no. (2031).

2003 — “Firdaws is the elevated region of Paradise; it is its middle and its finest part.”

Ibn Jarīr narrated it in his Exegesis (16/30), as did Abū Nuʿaym in Description of Paradise (2/2—Shaykh al-Islam), from Saʿīd ibn Bashīr, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, from Samurah, as a Prophetic report.

I say: This is a weak chain of transmission, because al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī uses the ambiguous transmission formula “from,” and because Saʿīd ibn Bashīr is weak. However, the hadith is authentic, for it has corroborating reports, including:

1 — From Anas, as a Prophetic report: “O Umm Ḥārithah … Firdaws is the elevated region of Paradise, its middle, and its best part.” It was narrated by Aḥmad (3/260), Ibn Jarīr (16/31), and al-Tirmidhī (2/201).