peace and blessings be upon him, said to some women of the Ansar: “No three children of any one of you will die, and she bears their loss seeking Allah’s reward, except that she will enter Paradise.” One of them asked, “And two, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “And two.” Muslim (8/39) and Aḥmad (2/246 and 378) narrated it.

Another supporting report is the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording. It includes: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘And two, and two, and two.’” Muslim narrated it, as did al-Bukhārī (3/94, Fatḥ), but without the repeated words: “and two.”

2303 – “Part of filial piety is maintaining ties with your father’s friend.”

Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ (350), from ʿAnbasah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, from Anas ibn Mālik, attributed to the Prophet. He said: “It is narrated from Anas only through this chain of transmission, and Ibn Sābiṭ narrated no other hadith from Anas.”

I say: It cannot be stated with certainty that Ibn Sābiṭ narrated it from Anas, because the narrator from him is ʿAnbasah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the Umayyad, who is abandoned. Abū Ḥātim accused him of fabrication. Al-Haythamī (8/147) said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and its chain includes ʿAnbasah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurashī, who is abandoned.” However, the hadith is authentic, because it has a supporting report in the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar recorded by Muslim and others, which has already been mentioned under hadith 2089.

2304 – “Whoever frightens the people of Medina, Allah will frighten him.”

Ibn Ḥibbān (1039), Ibn al-Najjār in Dhayl Tārīkh Baghdād (10/4), and Ibn ʿAsākir (16/240/2) narrated it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from