into two sections: “The Authentic” and “The Weak.” In doing so, he made a most extraordinary muddle, for this is neither his field of knowledge nor, I would add, his specialty. Thus, he placed in “The Authentic” what should have been in “The Weak,” and vice versa. Explaining this is a matter for another occasion. The point here is that he embellished these books with photographs of pages from manuscripts of the Sunan collections, as though he had been commissioned to republish them in newly edited editions based on the manuscripts, whereas he had only been commissioned to print the work of authentication and weakening that I had carried out on the Sunan collections! But this is claiming a distinction one was not granted!

Moreover, the new editor of Riyad al-Salihin, Hassān ʿAbd al-Mannān, omitted the hadith from its first location—the more beneficial of the two—and confined himself to citing it in its other location. He also omitted the words, “Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim,” without offering any explanation as to whether this omission was based on his own judgment or on a finding he reached after consulting some manuscripts. This is something he neither took pains over nor claimed to have done—praise be to Allah—unlike others.

It also appears that he did not notice the mursal transmission or the break in its chain; otherwise, he would have hastened to seize upon it in order to declare the hadith weak, as he did with others reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim, let alone those reported by other compilers of the Sunan. I have presented many examples of this in the supplementary corrections that I appended to the second volume of the new edition of al-Sahihah. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

Al-ruʿāh: the plural of rāʿī, “herdsman.” Al-huṭamah: one who is harsh in tending camels, driving them out and bringing them back, forcing some upon others and treating them brutally. It is used as a likeness for an evil governor, as stated in al-Nihayah.

2886 — “O Allah, nothing is easy except what You make easy, and You make hardship easy if You will.”

It was recorded by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (2427), Ibn al-Sunni (351), and al-Ḍiyāʾ