the senior ones among them, for Ḥibbān was a fifth-tier Successor according to al-Ḥāfiẓ; and since they were a group, their being unidentified does not detract from the report, as is well known among the scholars. Their narration of this account indicates that it was well known and widely circulated among them. In al-Iṣābah, al-Ḥāfiẓ also cited supporting evidence for it in the mursal report of Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his father: the Prophet was passing through with a palm stalk and struck Sawād ibn Ghaziyyah al-Anṣārī with it … then he mentioned the story.

I say: Ibn Saʿd also transmitted it in the biography of Sawād ibn Ghaziyyah (3/516–517), through an authentic chain from al-Ḥasan as a mursal report, with the wording: “He saw Sawād ibn ʿAmr …” Ibn Saʿd said: “This is how Ismāʿīl stated it”—meaning Ibn ʿUlayyah. Al-Ḥāfiẓ was inclined to regard the incident as having occurred more than once. Allah knows best.

2836 — “There is no one from among my Ummah whom I will not recognise on the Day of Resurrection.” They asked, “How will you recognise them, Messenger of Allah, amid the multitude of created beings?” He said, “Suppose you entered an enclosure containing entirely black horses, among which was a horse with a white blaze and white markings on its legs: would you not recognise it among them?” They said, “Certainly.” He said, “Then, on that Day, my Ummah will have bright faces from prostration and bright limbs from minor ablution.”

Aḥmad (4/189) and al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtārah (55/114/1–2) narrated it through several routes from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, who said: Yazīd ibn Khumayr al-Raḥabī narrated to us from ʿAbdullāh ibn Busr al-Māzinī that the Messenger of Allah said this. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, meeting Muslim’s conditions, as al-Ḍiyāʾ stated. Al-Tirmidhī (607) also transmitted its final passage and said, “It is good, authentic, and singular through this route.”