Al-Ḥākim also recorded it through this route (2/473) and said: “Authentic according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him! Yet the hadith has a corroborating report that strengthens it. Ibn Jarīr said (27/72): Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā and ʿAmr ibn Mālik al-Baṣrī both narrated to us: Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym al-Ṭāʾifī narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, attributing it to the Prophet.

Al-Bazzār also recorded it (pp. 221–222, al-Zawāʾid): ʿAmr ibn Mālik narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym narrated to us with the same chain. In his version, it ends with: “So all praise belongs to You.” He said: “We know of no report from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, except through this chain.” The hadith master then commented: “All of them are trustworthy, except for his shaykh, whom the majority of scholars deemed weak.”

I say: He means ʿAmr ibn Mālik al-Baṣrī. However, in Ibn Jarīr’s narration he is paired with Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād ibn Mūsā, nicknamed Sindūlā, who was truthful but made mistakes. Thus, each of the two reinforces the other. Yet Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym al-Ṭāʾifī, although truthful and among the narrators of the two Shaykhs, had poor retention, as stated in al-Taqrīb. Nevertheless, taken together, the two chains do not place the hadith below the rank of good. And Allah knows best.

2151 — “Prompt your dying ones to say: ‘There is no god worthy of worship but Allah,’ for the believer’s soul departs as perspiration, whereas the disbeliever’s soul comes out from the side of his mouth as a donkey’s soul comes out.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Kabīr (3/77/1), from ʿĀṣim, from Abū Wāʾil, from ʿAbd Allāh, attributing it to the Prophet. I say: This is a good chain of transmission; all its narrators are trustworthy, despite the disagreement concerning ʿĀṣim—namely, Ibn Abī al-Najūd—because of his retention. The conclusion reached by the verifying scholars concerning him is that he is of middling standing and acceptable.