al-Dārimī (2/313), omitting the portion before his words: “Where is so-and-so? …” If it is preserved, then it is a different account. Yet I doubt that it is established as part of this hadith for two reasons. First, it is not found in the hadith concerning the people of Badr as narrated from any of the Companions whom we mentioned, except in the hadith of Abū Hurayrah as reported by those whom we cited. Its chain includes ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd, whose retention was subject to criticism. Al-Dhahabī and al-ʿAsqalānī said: “Truthful, but makes mistakes.” Such a narrator’s hadith is good when he does not contradict others; but when there is contradiction—as there is here—then it is not.

The second reason is that the account of the blind man, whose name was ʿItbān, is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere, narrated by ʿItbān himself. It mentions the Companions’ disparaging remarks about the man, but not the account concerning the people of Badr. Instead, he said: “Does he not testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah? …” See Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (1/45–46).

ʿĀṣim also differed in another respect: he said, “Indeed, Allah looked upon …,” whereas the other reliable narrators who related the hadith from the aforementioned group of Companions said, “Perhaps Allah looked upon …,” expressing possibility, as al-Ḥākim previously noted. Yet the matter of this discrepancy is insignificant for two reasons as well. First, ʿĀṣim did not consistently maintain this wording; rather, in some routes from him, as mentioned above, he agreed with the reliable narrators in their wording. There can be no doubt that this is more sound. Second, he narrated it according to its meaning, and this wording is an example of that. Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned in al-Fatḥ (7/305, al-Salafiyyah edition) that the scholars said: Expressions of expectation in the speech of Allah and the speech of His Messenger indicate actual occurrence.