“I heard Aisha’s voice raised as she said: ‘By Allah, I have certainly come to know that Ali is dearer to you than my father and me’—twice or three times.”

Thus, the reports of these two reliable narrators establish that Yunus narrated it directly from al-Ayzar, without the intermediary of his father, al-Subayʿi. The chain is therefore authentic, as we have said; praise be to Allah Most High. If al-Hajjaj al-Maṣṣīṣī accurately retained Yunus’s narration from his father, from al-Ayzar, then Yunus narrated it in both ways: at times through his father, and at times directly from al-Ayzar.

Supporting this is the fact that he shared many of his father’s shaykhs, including al-Ayzar, as stated in the latter’s biography in al-Tahdhib. Ibn Saʿd said in Yunus’s biography (6/363): “He lived to an advanced age (1), and narrated from most of his father’s men.” Moreover, he was not accused of concealment in transmission. The utmost that was said concerning him is what al-Hafiz summarized in al-Taqrib: “Truthful; he makes occasional errors.”

2902 — “A prayer here—meaning Medina—is better than a thousand prayers there—meaning Aelia.”

It was recorded by al-Tahawi in Mushkil al-Athar (1/247), al-Hakim (3/504), and al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (1/285/907); and through him by Abu Nuʿaym in al-Maʿrifah (2/381/1006), by way of ʿAṭṭaf ibn Khalid, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUthman ibn al-Arqam [from his grandfather al-Arqam], who said: I came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, and he asked me, “Where do you intend to go?” I replied, “To Jerusalem,”