But al-Quḍāʿī narrated it (fol. 110/2) by way of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, from al-Aʿmash, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Jābir, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording. He added: “It remains standing until it is uprooted.” This is a good chain.

As for what Aḥmad also narrated (5/342), by way of Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah, from an unnamed narrator, from a concubine of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb who had borne him a child, from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: “A man came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who asked him, ‘When did you last suffer from Umm Mildam—a burning fever felt between the skin and the flesh?’ He replied, ‘That is an ailment that has never afflicted me.’ The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘The believer is like a tender stalk: at one time it reddens, and at another it turns yellow.’” Its weakness is evident, because the identity of the concubine is unknown, as is that of the unnamed narrator who reported from her. Al-Haythamī likewise identified this as its defect (2/293).

2284 — “The believer is like an ear of grain: at times it bends, and at times it stands upright.”

It has been reported on the authority of Anas and Abū Hurayrah:

1. As for the hadith of Anas, it has several routes from him. The first is through Thābit, from him, attributed to the Prophet. It was narrated by Abū Yaʿlā (2/831), and from him by al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Mukhtārah (fol. 49/2); also by al-Bazzār in his Musnad (p. 82—its supplementary narrations), al-Baghawī in Hadith Hudbah ibn Khālid (1/246/2), and al-Rāmahurmuzī in al-Amthāl (62/2), all through Hudbah ibn Khālid, who said: ʿUbayd ibn Muslim, known as the companion of al-Sābirī, narrated to us from him. I say: This is a good chain; its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from this ʿUbayd, whom Ibn