Then, while they were thus engaged, a dark-complexioned man raised his head from one of those graves. There was a mark of prostration between his eyes, and he said: “O people, what do you want of me? I died a hundred years ago, yet the agony of death has not subsided from me until this very moment. So supplicate to Allah to restore me to how I was.”

Aḥmad recorded it in al-Zuhd (16–17), and Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (9/62), though without the story; likewise al-Bazzār in his Musnad (1/108/192—Kashf al-Astār), through al-Rabīʿ ibn Saʿd al-Juʿfī, who heard it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: … and he mentioned it.

I say: This is a chain whose narrators are trustworthy, though there is disagreement as to whether Ibn Sābiṭ heard from Jābir. Ibn Maʿīn was asked, “Did ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ hear from Jābir?” He replied, “No.” However, Ibn Abī Ḥātim affirmed that he heard from him, stating in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (Narrator Criticism and Accreditation) (2/2/240): “He narrated from ʿUmar mursal, and from Jābir with a continuous chain.” This differs from what he related in al-Marāsīl (p. 84), but this is the stronger view, for the reason that follows.

ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd recorded it in full in al-Muntakhab min al-Musnad (folio 152/1), as did Wakīʿ in al-Zuhd (1/280/56) and Ibn Abī Dāwūd in al-Baʿth (30/5). In it, Ibn Sābiṭ explicitly states that he received the report directly. Thus, the hadith is sound and its chain is connected, praise be to Allah. The first part of it has a corroborating report from the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet. It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd (2/126), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Mushkil al-Āthār (1/40–41), and Ibn Ḥibbān (109—Mawārid), who added: