Abu Sa‘d al-Madani, who was truthful but became confused in his later years, and concerning whom there is well-known criticism. The author mentioned him among the narrators whose status is disputed at the end of this book and criticized him. He also mentioned that Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat and narrated more than one hadith from him in his Sahih; perhaps this is what deceived him.”

The truth is that the man is weak and cannot be relied upon as proof, though perhaps his reports may be used for corroboration. In my view, this particular hadith of his is not rejected; rather, it is good, for it has many corroborating reports, some of which were mentioned previously in the first volume (294–297). The closest of these is Muslim’s hadith: “Whoever cares for two girls until they reach maturity, he and I shall come on the Day of Resurrection like this,” and he joined his fingers together. It was cited earlier as no. 297. Al-Bukhari’s wording in al-Adab al-Mufrad (894) is: “...I and he will be in Paradise like these two.”

2777 — “When the great battles occur, Allah will send forth a force of mawali (clients) [from Damascus]. They will be the Arabs’ finest horsemen and the best equipped with weapons. Through them Allah will support the religion.”

Ibn Majah (4090), al-Hakim (4/548), and Ibn ‘Asakir in Tarikh Dimashq (1/258–260) narrated it through ‘Uthman ibn Abi al-‘Atikah, who said: Sulayman ibn Habib al-Muharibi narrated to us from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say this.

Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to al-Bukhari’s criteria.” I say: Al-Dhahabi concurred with him, but in his Talkhis he wrote “M,” meaning: according to Muslim’s criteria. The first is closer to being correct, since Muslim did not narrate from this ‘Uthman, whereas al-Bukhari narrated from him only in al-Adab al-Mufrad. Moreover, its chain of transmission cannot be judged authentic, though it may possibly be good, because he—that is, ‘Uthman—