anything with which you can feed us?’ She replied, ‘Yes, some hays, a confection of dates, clarified butter, and dried curds.’ So she brought it near to them, and they ate. Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, offered a supplication. Then, while I was a boy, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, turned toward me and passed his hand over my head; then he spoke, mentioning it.” Abū al-Qāsim said: “He lived to be one hundred.”

Tamām transmitted it in al-Fawāʾid (55/2), and Ibn ʿAsākir transmitted it from him (9/4/2 and 17/447/2) in two places, one of them in the biography of this al-Walīd. There, he did no more than cite this hadith of his, which suggests that he is unknown. I think he is the one mentioned in al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (Narrator Criticism and Accreditation) (4/2/18): “Al-Walīd ibn Marwān narrated from Ghaylān ibn Jarīr, and Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated from him. I heard my father say: ‘He is unknown.’” Something similar appears in al-Mīzān and al-Lisān.

I say: However, the account he mentioned has come through another route, both in a longer and a shorter version. The fullest version is that narrated by Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, who said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr al-Māzinī related to me: “My father sent me to invite the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, to a meal. He came with me, and when I drew near to the house, I hurried ahead and informed my parents. They came out to meet the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and welcomed him. They laid out for him a rug that was by their zubayrah (1), and he sat upon it. Then my father said to my mother, ‘Bring your food.’ She came with a large bowl containing a thick mixture of flour that she had prepared with water and salt, and placed it before the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. He said: ‘Take, in the Name of Allah, from around its edges, and leave its top, for the blessing is in it.’”