one example, the very matter now under discussion. In this edition of his, crowned—as usual—with his supervision, the hadith appeared as: “There is nothing in domestic animals!” Yes, this is how the word hām in the hadith was corrupted for him into “domestic animals”! This is not a typographical error that may be excused, as some ignorant people have claimed, for the publisher repeated it in its entirety in a comment he made in his new edition as well—again without my permission—of my book Sahih al-Jami‘ (2/1248). Commenting on this hadith, he wrote: “Its beginning is: ‘There is nothing in domestic animals’...” Thus, if this indicates anything, it indicates—as people say today—that the man prates about what he does not know, and faithfully reproduces the error into which he first fell! Allah is the One whose help is sought.

2950 — “Peace be upon you, boys!”

Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated it in al-Musannaf (8/633/5826), and Ahmad (3/183); both said: Waki‘ narrated to us, from Habib ibn Hajar al-‘Absi, from Thabit, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, passed by us while we were boys and said the above. Ibn al-Sunni also narrated it in ‘Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (77/223), and Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilyah (8/378), through two other routes from Waki‘, with the same chain.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs, apart from this Habib. A number of other trustworthy transmitters besides Waki‘ narrated from him. Ibn Hibban mentioned him in two places among the “Followers of the Successors” in al-Thiqat. In the first of them (6/179), he said: “Habib ibn Hajar, a shaykh who narrates from Thabit al-Bunani. Ruh ibn ‘Ubadah narrated from him.” In the other place (6/249), he said: