of pain in his feet without his saying: “Dye your feet with henna.”

I say: This is a chain whose narrators are trustworthy, but they differed over its chain from Fa’id. Abu Sa‘id narrated it in this manner, whereas Abu ‘Amir narrated: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Mawali narrated to us from Ayyub ibn Hasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Rafi‘, from his grandmother Salma, who served the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him; he then related it—omitting Fa’id. It was narrated by Ahmad, al-Bukhari in al-Tarikh (1/1/411), and al-Hakim (4/206), who said: “Its chain is authentic, and al-Bukhari cited ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Mawali as an authority.”

I say: Al-Dhahabi concurred with him. As for this Ayyub, al-Azdi said: “His hadith is rejected.” Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat. Fa’id, in the first route, is trustworthy, were it not for the inconsistency in the reports from him; al-Bukhari alluded to this in al-Tarikh. Among these reports is what Hammad ibn Khalid al-Khayyat narrated: Fa’id, the freedman of the family of Abu Rafi‘, narrated to us from ‘Ali ibn ‘Ubayd Allah, from his grandmother Salma—who served the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—who said: “Whenever the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, had a sore or suffered an injury, he would instruct me to apply henna to it.”

Al-Tirmidhi narrated it (2/5) and said: “A good, singular hadith. We know it only through the hadith of Fa’id.” Some narrated this hadith from Fa’id, saying: “From ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Ali, from his grandmother Salma”; and “‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Ali is more correct.” He and Ibn Majah (3502) then narrated, from Zayd ibn Hubab, from Fa’id—the freedman of ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Ali—from his master ‘Ubayd Allah, from his grandmother, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, something similar in meaning.