ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mughra, from al-Azhar ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Awdī, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from his father, from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, attributed to the Prophet. Abū Nuʿaym said: “A singular hadith; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mughra alone narrated it from Azhar.”

I say: Both of them are truthful, as are those above them in the chain. As for al-Qaṭṭān, a number of reliable narrators reported from him, including Abū Dāwūd in al-Marāsīl and al-Nasāʾī outside al-Sunan. Aḥmad treated him with honour, so he is a narrator of unestablished standing; al-Ḥāfiẓ rated him “acceptable.” I say: Thus, his hadith is good, if Allah wills, particularly since Abū Nuʿaym’s preceding statement indicates that he was not alone in narrating it. And Allah knows best.

2269 — “Whenever a Muslim man cleans barley for his horse and then feeds it to it, he is recorded a good deed for every grain.”

It was recorded by Aḥmad (4/103) and al-Ṭabarānī in Musnad al-Shāmiyyīn (p. 103), from Shuraḥbīl ibn Muslim al-Khawlānī: “Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ visited Tamīm al-Dārī and found him cleaning barley for his horse. His family were around him, so Rūḥ said to him, ‘Was there no one among these who could spare you this task?’ Tamīm replied, ‘Indeed there was, but I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say,’” and he then cited the hadith.

I say: This is a sound Syrian chain of transmission, its narrators being reliable. There is some criticism of Shuraḥbīl, but it is not detrimental. Under the heading, “The reports with a continuous chain narrated by Shuraḥbīl ibn Muslim ibn Ḥāmid al-Khawlānī,” al-Ṭabarānī said: “I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad say: I heard my father say: ‘Shuraḥbīl ibn Muslim is among the reliable...’”