the route of Ayyūb, from Abū Rajāʾ al-ʿAṭṭāridī, who said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say: Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. Ḥammād ibn Najīḥ also corroborated him, having heard it from Abū Rajāʾ with the same wording. It was narrated by Aḥmad (1/234) and al-Sahmī in History of Jurjān (47), who mentioned alongside Ḥammād Ṣakhr ibn Juwayriyah, with the wording “poor people” in place of “the impoverished”; the meaning is the same. It also has a corroborating report, which will be mentioned shortly.

Al-Bukhārī (6541), al-Tirmidhī (2606), Ibn Ḥibbān (7412—al-Iḥsān), and Aḥmad (4/429) also narrated it through ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīlah, from Abū Rajāʾ, from ʿImrān, attributed to the Prophet with the same wording. Al-Tirmidhī said: “A good, authentic hadith. This is how ʿAwf reports it: from Abū Rajāʾ, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn; whereas Ayyūb reports it: from Abū Rajāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās. Neither chain is subject to criticism. It is possible that Abū Rajāʾ heard it from both of them. Narrators other than ʿAwf also related this hadith from Abū Rajāʾ, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn.”

I say: This is more likely: Abū Rajāʾ narrated it from Ibn ʿAbbās and from ʿImrān, for he was trustworthy and an authoritative narrator. Muṭarrif also corroborated him from ʿImrān in Aḥmad (4/443).

Supporting this hadith is what Abū ʿUthmān narrated from Usāmah ibn Zayd, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “I stood at the gate of Paradise and found that most of those who entered it were poor people, while the people of means were held back. As for the inhabitants of Hell, they had been commanded to enter Hell. And I stood at the gate of Hell and found that most of those who entered it were women.”