“Al-Bazzar reported it with a good chain of transmission.” For it appears that he was also mistaken regarding Humayd. However, the hadith has a strong corroborating report from Abu Nujayh al-Sulami, attributed to the Prophet: “Whoever grows a gray hair in the path of Allah shall have a light on the Day of Resurrection; and whoever shoots an arrow shall have a light on the Day of Resurrection...” The hadith was reported by al-Bayhaqi in his Sunan (9/161) with an authentic chain of transmission. Its first part was also reported by al-Nasaʾi (2/59) through two other routes, as well as by Ahmad (4/113), and one of his two chains is also authentic.

Then Ibn Hibban’s Thiqāt was published, and I found that he had included in it ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Fadl ibn al-Muwaffaq (8/382), mentioning that al-Hadrami and the people of Iraq narrated from him. Al-Hadrami’s narration—he being one of al-Tabarani’s shaykhs—is found in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat, as stated in my book Taysir Intifaʿ al-Khillan; may Allah make its completion easy.

2556 — “Whoever receives a wound in the path of Allah will come on the Day of Resurrection with its scent like that of musk and its colour like that of saffron, bearing the seal of the martyrs. And whoever sincerely asks Allah for martyrdom, Allah will grant him the reward of a martyr, even if he dies in his bed.”

Ibn Hibban reported it (1615—Mawarid) through Ibn Thawban, from his father, from Mak-hul, from Kathir ibn Murrah, from Malik ibn Yukhāmir al-Saksaki, that Muʿadh ibn Jabal said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said—and he cited it. I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Abu Dawud (2541) also reported something similar through this route, but without the words: “even if he dies in his bed.”