therein; from the evil of what He has spread throughout the earth; from the evil of what comes forth from it; from the evil of the trials of night and day; and from the evil of every visitor by night—except a visitor who comes with good, O Most Merciful!” Thereupon the fire of the devils was extinguished, and Allah, Exalted is He, routed them.

It was reported by Ahmad (3/419), Abū Yaʿlā (12/237), from whom Ibn al-Sunnī (631) narrated it; also by Abū Nuʿaym in The Proofs of Prophethood (p. 148) and al-Maʿrifah (2/49/2), and by al-Bayhaqī in The Proofs of Prophethood (7/95), through various routes from Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān: Abū al-Tayyāḥ narrated to us that a man asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khunbash, “What did the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, do when the devils sought to harm him?” He then related it.

In one version recorded by Ahmad—and by Abū Nuʿaym through him in al-Maʿrifah—Sayyār ibn Ḥātim Abū Salamah al-ʿAnazī narrated to us: Jaʿfar narrated to us; he said: Abū al-Tayyāḥ narrated to us, saying: “I said to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khunbash al-Tamīmī—who was elderly—‘Did you live during the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘What did the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, do...’” The hadith.

I say: This chain of transmission is good through this route. This Sayyār was truthful, as al-Dhahabī said, though there is slight criticism concerning him, to which al-Ḥāfiẓ alluded when he said: “Truthful, but prone to errors.” (1) As for the hadith through the other routes from Jaʿfar, it is authentic, were it not for Abū al-Tayyāḥ’s statement in them, “A man asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khunbash...” In my critical assessment, this has the appearance of a mursal narration, unlike Sayyār’s wording, which has a continuous chain. Perhaps this is why al-Bukhārī, after mentioning him in al-Ṣaḥābah, said: