But the hadith has another route: Shayban narrated it from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, from Hayyah, who related it from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, with similar wording. Ahmad also recorded it (5/70), but its chain contains an unknown narrator and inconsistency, which I have explained in al-Da'ifah (4804).

In the two Sahih collections and in al-Musnad (2/266), another route from Abu Hurayrah reports that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, say: “There are no bad omens, and the best of them is the favourable omen.” It was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is a favourable omen?” He replied: “A good word that one of you hears.”

A corroborating report for this comes from the hadith of Anas in the two Shaykhs’ collections; its sourcing was previously given under no. 786.

As for the statement, “The evil eye is real,” it is widely transmitted, if not mass-transmitted. The documentation of a good many of its chains has already been given; see hadiths 781 and 1248–1251.

The first statement also has a corroborating report narrated by Ibn al-Sunni in ‘Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (97/288), through an authentic chain from al-A‘mash, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amir al-Juhani, who said: The Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, was asked about bad omens. He said: “The truest of them is the favourable omen, but it must not turn a Muslim back…”—the hadith.

Habib ibn Abi Thabit practised tadlis, as did al-A‘mash. However, Sufyan corroborated him from Habib, though he said: from ‘Urwah ibn ‘Amir. It was recorded by Abu Dawud (3919) and al-Bayhaqi (8/139). I say: ‘Urwah ibn ‘Amir is al-Qurashi, also said to be al-Juhani al-Makki, concerning whom there is disagreement as to