“He said: ‘Al-Arqam then sat down and did not leave.’” I say: This supports the view that what is meant is the Mosque of Medina, not Mecca.

If it is asked: What is the benefit of this investigation—whether it concerns the chain of transmission or the text—so long as you consider the chain weak? I reply: There is no necessary connection between the two. The text of a hadith may be authentic despite the weakness of its chain, if another route of transmission or a corroborating report exists for it. This is known as a hadith that is good or authentic due to external support, and that is precisely the case with this hadith.

I found for it a strong corroborating report from the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) bade farewell to a man and asked him, “Where are you intending to go?” He replied, “I intend to go to Bayt al-Maqdis.” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) then cited the hadith in the wording of Yahya ibn ‘Imran.

It was reported by Ahmad, and by his son ‘Abd Allah in the supplemental additions to al-Musnad (3/77). He said: My father narrated to me: ‘Uthman ibn Muhammad narrated to us—and I myself heard it from ‘Uthman ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Shaybah—Jarir narrated to us, from al-Mughirah, from Ibrahim, from Sahm, from Quz‘ah, from Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri, with it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Sahih collections, apart from Sahm—namely, Minjab—who is trustworthy and among the narrators used by Muslim. In al-Musnad, he is given as “Ibrahim ibn Sahl,” which is a typographical error. Ibrahim is Ibrahim ibn Yazid al-Nakha‘i; al-Mughirah is al-Mughirah ibn Miqsam al-Dabbi; and Jarir is Jarir ibn ‘Abd al-Hamid.