so I said to them, “Where are you both going? May Allah have mercy on you.” They replied, “We are going over there, to visit an ailing brother of ours.” So I went with them until we entered upon that man. They asked him, “How are you this morning?” He replied, “I awoke in Allah’s blessing and bounty.” Shaddad then said: “Receive glad tidings, for I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say...” and he then cited the hadith.

I say: This chain of transmission is good, Allah willing. Its narrators are trustworthy. There is disagreement concerning Rashid ibn Dawud—al-San'ani al-Dimashqi. Ibn Ma'in, Duhaym, and Ibn Hibban deemed him trustworthy. Al-Bukhari said: “There are reservations about him.” Al-Daraqutni said: “He is weak and is not to be relied upon.” Al-Hafiz states in al-Taqrib: “He is truthful, though he makes errors.”

I say: The hadith of a narrator such as him is good provided that he does not narrate a rejected report. This hadith has well-known corroborating reports, some of which have already been mentioned; see, for example, Hadith 272.

Note: Al-Manawi said: Al-Haythami said: “It was reported by all of them through Isma'il ibn Ayyash, from Rashid al-San'ani; and he is weak when narrating from non-Syrians.” End quote. The compiler paid no heed to this and marked it as good.

I say: Al-Haythami, and then al-Manawi, overlooked the fact that this Rashid was not from Sana'a in Yemen; rather, he was from Sana'a in Damascus. This is why they described him as Damascene. Thus, declaring the hadith defective on the basis they mentioned is sheer error. Take note.

2010 — “Allah Most High says: ‘When I take from My servant his precious eye—an eye he dearly cherishes—I will accept no reward for him short of Paradise, if he praises Me for it.’”

It was recorded by Abu Nu'aym in al-Hilyah (6/103), through Baqiyyah, from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam, who said: Habib ibn Ubayd narrated from al-Irbad ibn Sariyah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.