2092 — “His door was knocked on with fingernails.”

Al-Bukhārī reported it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1080) and al-Tārīkh (1/1/228), and Abū Nuʿaym in Akhbār Iṣfahān (2/110 and 365), from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iṣfahānī, from Muḥammad ibn Mālik ibn al-Muntaṣir, from Anas ibn Mālik, attributed to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. I say: This is a weak chain of transmission: Ibn al-Muntaṣir and Abū Bakr al-Iṣfahānī are both unknown.

It has a supporting report from the hadith of Kaysān, the freedman of Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who said: He then mentioned it. Al-Ḥākim reported it in Knowledge of the Hadith Sciences (p. 19), from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Zubayqī: “Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Minqārī narrated to us; al-Aṣmaʿī narrated to us; Kaysān narrated to us ...”

Concerning this Kaysān, Ibn Abī Ḥātim said (3/2/166): “He narrated from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, and Abū Nuʿaym and Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated from him.” I say: Al-Aṣmaʿī also narrated from him, as appears in this report. Thus, his status is unknown, and he meets Ibn Ḥibbān’s criterion. Perhaps Ibn Ḥibbān included him in his book of reliable narrators; then I found him there (7/358).

As for al-Zubayqī, al-Samʿānī listed him under this attribution and said: “He narrated from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib, and Judge Abū ʿUmar ibn Athiyāfā al-Baṣrī narrated from him.”

I then found another route from Anas, transmitted by Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad: “Al-Muṭṭalib ibn Ziyād narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Suwayd, from Anas.” Al-Bazzār reported it (2008—Kashf al-Astār): “Ḥumayd ibn al-Rabīʿ narrated to us; Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad narrated to us,” with this chain. I say: Concerning Ḍirār, al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Truthful, but prone to misconceptions and errors.”