“When a servant dies, the souls of the believers receive his soul and ask him, ‘What has happened to so-and-so? What has happened to so-and-so?’ If he says, ‘He died before me,’ they say, ‘He was taken to his mother, the Abyss. What an evil mother and what an evil nurse!’”

I say: This is a mursal report with a weak chain of transmission. He then cited many reports with the same meaning. In sum, the hadith is authentic through these corroborating reports, as al-Suyūṭī stated. And Allah knows best.

I then saw that al-Qurṭubī said in al-Tadhkirah (40/2–41/1), after mentioning the preceding report transmitted by Ibn al-Mubārak from Abū Ayyūb and other reports: “Although these reports are attributed to Companions, matters such as these cannot be stated on the basis of personal opinion. Al-Nasāʾī transmitted, with his chain of transmission, the hadith of Abū Hurayrah … in which it says: ‘The souls of the believers come to receive him, and their joy at his arrival is greater than that of any one of you when his absent loved one returns. They approach him and ask, “What happened to so-and-so? What happened to so-and-so?” They say, “Leave him, for he was in the distress of worldly life …”’”

I say: Its documentation has already preceded under no. 1309, and it will be repeated in greater detail under no. 2758.

2629 — “He would go out to relieve himself, then perform dry ablution with earth. So I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, water is close at hand!’ He replied, ‘How do I know? Perhaps I may not live to reach it.’”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak transmitted it in al-Zuhd (292): Ibn Lahīʿah informed us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hubayrah, from Ḥanash, from Ibn ʿAbbās, attributing it to the Prophet. Aḥmad (1/288) and Ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabaqāt (1/383) also transmitted it through Ibn al-Mubārak with this chain. He then said (1/303): Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq and Mūsā ibn Dāwūd narrated to us; they said: Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us with this chain. Al-Haythamī said (1/263): “Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr narrated it, and its chain contains Ibn Lahīʿah, who is weak.”