that whenever he came from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he would relate matters to his people and teach them. One day, a man said to him—in jest, it seemed—“There is nothing left for Suraqah to teach you except how to defecate!” Suraqah replied, “When you go ...” and then cited the hadith.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, as al-Haythami stated (1/204–205). The explanation is as follows:

First, this Abu Rushdayn was named Ziyad al-Jundi, as recorded in al-Bukhari’s History (2/1/353) and Ibn Abi Hatim’s Narrator Criticism and Accreditation (1/2/550), in the narrations of this Simak and al-Nu‘man al-Jundi from him. Neither of them mentioned any criticism or accreditation of him. Ibn Hibban included him among the trustworthy Successors (4/454) and said: “Al-Nu‘man [and others] narrated from him.”

Second, all the other narrators are trustworthy and are included in al-Tahdhib, apart from Muhammad ibn ‘Abdus ibn Kamil, who was Abu Ahmad al-Sarraj. He has a favorable biographical notice in the History of Baghdad (2/381–382), based on reports from a number of leading hadith masters who narrated from him. Ibn al-Munadi said: “He was among those noted for their memorization and sound knowledge of hadith. Many people narrated from him because of his trustworthiness and precision. He was like a brother to ‘Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He died in the year 293 AH.” Al-Dhahabi also included him in his Memorial of Hadith Masters. His teacher, Makhlad ibn Khalid, was al-Shu‘ayri, one of Muslim’s teachers in his Sahih.

Third, the apparent context of the hadith text, even though it is attributed to a Companion, indicates that it has the status of a report attributed to the Prophet, for two reasons. The first is that Suraqah cited it after coming from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in rebuttal of that man’s remark: “There is nothing left for Suraqah to teach you except how to defecate!”