weak.” Thus, this is a criticism based solely on examining al-Tabarani’s chain of transmission in particular. Otherwise, it was corroborated by Sa‘id ibn ‘Amr al-Hadrami, as you have seen. He was from Homs and was a shaykh, as Abu Hatim stated; therefore, the hadith is strengthened by this corroboration. As for the corroboration of ‘Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Dahhak, it is of no value, since he was a liar. Al-Tabarani’s preceding statement, “Isma‘il alone narrated it,” indicates that his son was not alone in narrating it from him. Reflect on this.

Once you know this, al-Manawi did not act well in citing al-Haythami’s preceding statement and then endorsing him in it—especially since al-Suyuti also attributed it to al-Bayhaqi in al-Shu‘ab. Yet al-Manawi did not address whether the hadith in al-Bayhaqi’s collection came by way of Muhammad ibn Isma‘il or not.

2429 — “The Hour will not come until you fight a people with small eyes and broad faces, as though their eyes were the eyes of locusts and their faces were hammered shields. They wear hair sandals and carry shields, until they tether their horses to palm trees.”

Ahmad transmitted it (3/31): ‘Ammar ibn Muhammad, the nephew of Sufyan al-Thawri, narrated to us from al-A‘mash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, attributed to the Prophet. Ibn Majah also transmitted it (4099): al-Hasan ibn ‘Arafah narrated to us; ‘Ammar ibn Muhammad narrated to us likewise.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators used by al-Bukhari and Muslim, except for ‘Ammar ibn Muhammad, who was used only by Muslim; yet he was truthful, though he made mistakes.