A narration from ʿAbd al-Karīm, from Mujāhid through the same chain, differs in its wording, however, stating: “Five hundred years.” Ibn Mājah recorded it (2611): “Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabāḥ narrated to us: Sufyān informed us, from ʿAbd al-Karīm,” through the same chain. Al-Būṣīrī said in his al-Zawāʾid (161/2): “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Sindī related in his commentary on Ibn Mājah that he justified this by saying: “For Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabāḥ is Abū Jaʿfar al-Jurjānī (1), the merchant. Ibn Maʿīn said of him: ‘There is no objection to him,’ and Abū Ḥātim said: ‘His hadith is sound.’ Ibn Ḥibbān listed him among the trustworthy narrators, and there is no need to inquire into the status of the remaining narrators in the chain because of their renown.”

I say: This is acceptable on the assumption that this ʿAbd al-Karīm is al-Jazarī, as al-Mundhirī decisively maintained in al-Targhīb (3/88). Yet I have found nothing to support this assertion. Indeed, it is possible that he is the weak ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abī al-Mukhāriq, since both of them are listed among the shaykhs of Sufyān—namely, Ibn ʿUyaynah—and Mujāhid is likewise listed among the shaykhs of both. However, the discrepancy mentioned above lends greater weight to this possibility, for it is more fitting that it should come from the criticized ʿAbd al-Karīm than from the trustworthy ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Jazarī. And Allah knows best.

The hadith is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere, on the authority of Saʿd and Abū Bakrah, attributed to the Prophet, but without the words: “and its fragrance may be perceived.” It is cited in Ghāyat al-Marām (267).

2308 — “Whoever among you lives to see Jesus, son of Mary, let him convey to him my greeting of peace.”

Al-Ḥākim recorded it (4/545) from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān: “Muḥammad—though the original reads: Maḥmūd—ibn Muṣaffā al-Ḥimṣī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl narrated to us from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, from Anas,” attributed to the Prophet. He said: