“I was with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, at the Trench. He took up a pickaxe and dug with it, when he struck a stone and laughed. He was asked, ‘What makes you laugh, O Messenger of Allah?’ He said: ‘I laughed at people who will be brought from the East in fetters, being driven to Paradise.’”

Ahmad transmitted it (5/338), and this is his wording; and al-Tabarani transmitted it in al-Kabir (6/157/5733), adding: “while they are unwilling.”

Al-Haythami said: “It was narrated by Ahmad and al-Tabarani, except that he said: ‘They will be brought to Paradise in iron shackles’; and in one narration: ‘They will be driven to Paradise while they are unwilling.’ Its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih, apart from Muhammad ibn [Abi] Yahya al-Aslami, who is trustworthy.”

I say: There are two points to note here. First, although al-Fudayl ibn Sulayman was among the narrators used by the two Shaykhs and was truthful, he made many errors, as stated in al-Taqrib. Second, the version mentioning “shackles” recorded by al-Tabarani does not contain the trustworthy al-Aslami. Rather, al-Tabarani narrated it (6/232/5955) through another route from al-Fudayl ibn Sulayman, from Abu Hazim, from Sahl ibn Saʿd, with similar wording. Thus, al-Fudayl omitted Muhammad ibn Abi Yahya and al-ʿAbbas ibn Sahl from the chain, replacing them both with Abu Hazim. This perhaps indicates his error and deficient precision. As for the words, “They will be brought from the East,” they are a rejected addition not found in the other hadiths; for this reason, I included it in al-Daʿifah (4034).