guests, and died before you?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, repeated the foregoing statement. Less than twenty nights later, he died a polytheist.

I say: All the narrators in this chain of transmission are trustworthy except al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, a client of Banu Hashim. He is known only through Dawud’s narration from him, as stated in al-Bukhari’s al-Tarikh (4/1/5) and al-Jarh wa-al-Ta‘dil (3/211). Neither work mentions any criticism or accreditation of him; he is therefore unknown. Al-Hafiz’s designation of him in al-Taqrib as “concealed” is an oversight, since this means “unknown in status.” For he explicitly states in the introduction that this category applies only to one from whom more than one person has narrated, but who has not been declared reliable.

I say: Al-Haythami also overlooked this, for he said in al-Majma‘ (1/117): “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir, and its narrators are those of the Sahih collections!” Yet neither of the two Shaykhs nor any of the remaining four of the Six transmitted from this al-‘Abbas. Rather, Abu Dawud transmitted from him only in al-Marasil and al-Qadar. The hadith he narrated in al-Marasil resembles this one in meaning. He recorded it there (no. 508), also by way of Dawud from him, who said: A man came to al-‘Abbas and asked, “What do you think—was al-Ghaytalah, the soothsayer of Banu Sahm, in the Fire with ‘Abd al-Muttalib?” He remained silent. Then the man said, “What do you think of al-Ghaytalah...?” Al-‘Abbas struck him on the nose, so he went to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Why should any of you hurt his brother over a matter, even if it is true?”

Ibn Sa‘d likewise narrated it in al-Tabaqat (4/24–25), in a more complete form. This hadith was also narrated by al-Jurqani (1) in al-Abatil wa-al-Manakir (1/235), through