Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah narrated to me, saying: I was with Maʿqil al-Muzanī when he removed something harmful from the road. I noticed something and hastened to remove it, so he said: “What prompted you to do what you did, my nephew?” I replied: “I saw you doing something, so I did it.” He said: “Well done, my nephew! I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘Whoever removes something harmful from the path of the Muslims will have a good deed recorded for him; and whoever has a good deed accepted will enter Paradise.’”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (593), and by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr, except that he said: “Al-Mustanīr ibn Akhḍar ibn Muʿāwiyah narrated from his father, who said: I was with Maʿqil ibn Yasār ...” and so forth. Thus, he made it a narration of al-Mustanīr from his father, rather than his narration from Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah—who was his grandfather—as it appears in al-Bukhārī.

Al-Haythamī said: “Al-Mizzī said: ‘The correct version is that reported by al-Bukhārī.’ If it is as al-Mizzī said, then its chain of transmission is good, if Allah wills. But if it is through ‘his father, Akhḍar,’ then I have not found anyone who mentioned Akhḍar. And Allah knows best.”

I say: It is not good, because no one declared al-Mustanīr ibn Akhḍar trustworthy. Rather, Ibn al-Madīnī said: “He is unknown; I do not know him.” Still, if it were said that it is good in light of the preceding report, that would not be far-fetched, especially since it has another corroborating report narrated by Abū Shaybah al-Mahrī, who said: Muʿādh was walking with a man, and the man lifted a stone from the road. Muʿādh asked: “What is this?” He replied: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘Whoever removes a stone from the road will have a good deed recorded for him, and whoever has a good deed will enter Paradise.’” He said: