and his hadith constitutes proof so long as it does not conflict with stronger evidence. For this reason, al-Haythamī said (4/323): “Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Kabīr, and its chain of transmission is good.”

2152 — “For every living creature with a warm liver, there is a reward.”

Al-Ḥumaydī recorded it in his Musnad (902): Sufyān narrated to us; he said: I heard al-Zuhrī relate from either the son of Surāqah or Surāqah’s nephew, from Surāqah, who said: “I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, at al-Jiʿrānah, but I did not know what to ask him about. So I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I fill my watering trough and wait for my camels to return to me; then an animal comes and drinks from it. Is there any reward in that?’ The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said …” and he mentioned it.

I say: This is an authentic chain according to al-Bukhārī’s conditions, if al-Zuhrī heard it from Surāqah’s nephew, whose name was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mālik ibn Mālik ibn Juʿshum. But if he heard it from Surāqah’s son himself, whose name was Muḥammad, then I do not know him and have not found him mentioned in any of the biographical works available to me, such as Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (Narrator Criticism and Accreditation), Ibn Ḥibbān’s al-Thiqāt (The Trustworthy Narrators), al-Bukhārī’s al-Tārīkh (History), and others. However, the former is more likely, since Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq also narrated it from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mālik, with the same report. It was recorded by Ibn Mājah (2/294), al-Ḥākim (3/619), Aḥmad (4/175), and others.

Ṣāliḥ—namely Ibn Kaysān—also corroborated them, but he said: Ibn Shihāb related that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mālik informed him that his father informed him that Surāqah ibn Mālik entered upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him … the hadith.