I say: Abū Masʿūd died in 40 AH, while Abū ʿĀmir al-Ashʿarī died during the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, which began in 65 AH—though 73 AH has also been given. Thus, ʿAlī ibn Mudrik could all the more readily have heard from him, since Abū ʿĀmir died twenty years or more after Abū Masʿūd. For this reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb that he was trustworthy, of the fourth generation. He died in 120 AH. In short, the hadith has an authentic chain of transmission, all of whose narrators are trustworthy, and it agrees in substance with the many well-known hadiths that make enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong obligatory.

2561 — “Whoever does not take part in a campaign, equip a fighter, or properly take the place of a fighter in caring for his family, Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will afflict him with a calamity before the Day of Resurrection.”

It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2503), and from him by al-Bayhaqī (9/48); by al-Dārimī (2/209); Ibn Mājah (2762); Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Jihād (83/1); al-Ṭabarānī in Musnad al-Shāmiyyīn (p. 176) and al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (8/211/7747); and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Maqdisī in Faḍl al-Jihād (folio 120/2), through several routes from al-Walīd ibn Muslim, who said: Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith al-Dhimārī narrated to us, from al-Qāsim, from Abū Umāmah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said—and he then mentioned it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, if Allah wills. Its narrators are trustworthy, though there is some disagreement concerning al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the associate of Abū Umāmah. The established judgment regarding him is that his hadiths are good. As for al-Walīd ibn Muslim, although he was liable to concealment in transmission by suppressing an intermediary, al-Qāsim is well known to have narrated from Abū Umāmah, as al-Dhimārī is from al-Qāsim. In Musnad al-Rūyānī (30/217/2), and through it in Ibn ʿAsākir’s al-Arbaʿīn fī al-Ḥathth ʿalā al-Jihād (p. 84), the explicit formula of direct narration occurs in place of “from” at every point in the chain.