“Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim,” and al-Dhahabi concurred. I say: It is as they both said, even though Ibn Jurayj differed from him, narrating it from Ibn Tawus with the same wording as a statement of Ibn ʿAbbas. Al-Nasaʾi transmitted it. This is because Maʿmar is trustworthy, and an addition made by a trustworthy narrator is accepted; moreover, Ibn Jurayj practised tadlis and narrated it using an ambiguous “from” formula. As for Abu Nuʿaym’s subsequent remark, “Al-Fadl alone transmitted it from Maʿmar in a well-preserved form,” that was only according to what had reached him. Otherwise, al-Hakim’s narration is through Wahb—namely, Ibn Khalid—from Maʿmar, so al-Fadl, who is Ibn Musa, was not alone in transmitting it.

A point of benefit: the meaning of “who brandishes”—with a light pronunciation, though it may also be pronounced with emphasis—is: who draws “his sword, then applies it,” that is, against the people, striking them with it; “his blood is forfeit,” meaning that there is neither blood money nor retaliation for killing him. Imam al-Nasaʾi gave it the heading: “Whoever brandishes his sword and then applies it against the people.”

2346 — “Whoever is thrown from his mount in the path of Allah is a martyr.”

Al-Ruyani narrated it in his Musnad (18/34/2–35/1): Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman informed us; my uncle informed me; ʿAmr ibn al-Harith narrated to me that Abu ʿAli Thumamah ibn Shufayy told him that he heard ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmir say—and he cited it as a Prophetic report. I say: This chain is good, as al-Hafiz stated in al-Fath (6/14). He only refrained from declaring it authentic—despite the fact that all its narrators are trustworthy narrators of Muslim—because there is some criticism of Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, namely Ibn Wahb ibn Muslim al-Misri. Al-Hafiz himself alluded to this when he said in al-Taqrib: