This Waraqāʾ—who is the daughter of Haddāb, as stated in al-Awsaṭ—is unknown to me.

Note: al-Mundhirī mentioned this narration in al-Targhīb (3/43) after the interrupted narration of ʿĀʾishah, and commented on them both: “Aḥmad reported it, and its narrators are those relied upon in the Ṣaḥīḥ, except that its chain is interrupted.” This is not so, as will be clear to you from this documentation. In summary, the hadith under discussion is good, while the hadith of ʿĀʾishah, through its various routes, is authentic—except for Waraqāʾ’s narration, which is weak.

2823 — “By Allah, Allah sent the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, in the most severe circumstances in which He had ever sent any prophet: in an interval between messengers and an age of ignorance. People did not regard any religion as better than the worship of idols. Then he came with a criterion by which he distinguished truth from falsehood, and by which he separated a father from his son, until a man would see his father, his son, or his brother as a disbeliever, while Allah had unlocked his heart to faith. He knew that if his loved one perished, he would enter the Fire; thus, his eyes could find no comfort while he knew that his beloved was in the Fire. This is what Allah, Blessed and Exalted, said: ‘Those who say, “Our Lord, grant us comfort in our spouses and offspring.”’”

It was reported by Aḥmad (6/2–3): Yaʿmar ibn Bishr narrated to us: ʿAbd Allah—that is, Ibn al-Mubārak—narrated to us: Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr informed us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr narrated to me from his father, who said: One day we were sitting with al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad when a man passed by him and said, “How fortunate are these two eyes that saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. By Allah, we wish that we had seen what you saw and witnessed what you witnessed.” Al-Miqdād became angry, and I was surprised, for the man had said nothing but good. Then he turned to him and said: