Thus it becomes clear that the chain of transmission is authentic, since, as you have learned, the narrators above him are trustworthy. All praise is due to Allah, by whose grace righteous deeds are brought to completion.

2517 — “Adhere to the siwak (tooth-stick), for it freshens the mouth and pleases the Lord.”

Ahmad recorded it (2/108): Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd related to us; Ibn Lahīʿah related to us, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said it.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of both al-Bukhārī and Muslim, apart from Ibn Lahīʿah, whose memory was poor. On this basis, al-Mundhirī (1/101), and then al-Haythamī (1/220), found fault with it. Al-Haythamī also attributed it to al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ. I later revised this, saying: Rather, it has a sound chain, for Qutaybah’s hadiths from Ibn Lahīʿah are authentic, as al-Dhahabī established in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8/15). Ibn ʿAsākir also narrated it from Qutaybah (2/472), and then he and al-Ṭabarānī recorded it (1/177/1/3265).

I then found a corroborating report from the hadith of Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it, except that he said, “it cleanses the mouth,” while the remainder is exactly the same. Ibn Ḥibbān recorded it (144).

This is a sound chain: all its narrators are trustworthy and appear in Muslim’s Ṣaḥīḥ. There is some criticism of Ḥammād ibn Salamah when he narrates from someone other than Thābit, but that does not affect it; thus, the hadith is authentic. And Allah is the Granter of success. Then I saw that the hadith master, in al-Talkhīṣ (1/60), had criticized the text of the report from Abū Hurayrah