Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq informed us: My father informed us; Abū al-Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr al-Miṣrī related it to us; Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us; Ibn Wahb informed us; ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith informed me that Abū ʿAshānah told him, saying: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, may Allah be pleased with him, say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say—and he then cited it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Abū al-Ṭāhir and all those above him in the chain are trustworthy narrators used by Muslim, apart from Abū ʿAshānah—whose name was Ḥayy ibn Yūman al-Miṣrī—who is trustworthy, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq was al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Mandah, son of al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Mandah. Both were well-known, trustworthy hadith masters whose biographies al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī included in al-Tadhkirah. Thus, the chain is authentic.

Accordingly, al-Mundhirī’s statement (2/194), “Al-Aṣbahānī narrated it with a good chain of transmission, and its text is singular,” is clearly deficient. As for his finding it unusual, perhaps this was because Maʿrūf ibn Suwayd al-Judhāmī narrated a similar report from Abū ʿAshānah, attributed to the Prophet, but without the words: “Where are My servants who ... in My cause?” Aḥmad (2/168), Ibn Ḥibbān (2565), and al-Bazzār (4/256–257, Kashf al-Astār) recorded it.

I say: Ibn Ḥibbān declared this Maʿrūf trustworthy, and a number of trustworthy narrators transmitted from him. Yet ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith was more trustworthy and more well-known than he was; therefore, there is no harm in al-Judhāmī differing from him in some of its wording. Al-Ḥākim (2/71) also recorded it, as did al-Bayhaqī through him in al-Shuʿab (4/27–28), by another route from Ibn Wahb. He said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic,” and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.