- “If you are admitted into Paradise, you will be brought a horse of ruby with two wings. You will be mounted upon it, and it will then fly with you wherever you wish.”
It was recorded by al-Tirmidhi (2547), al-Tabarani (4/215/4075), and, through him, Abu Nu'aym in The Description of Paradise (261/423), by way of Wasil ibn al-Sa'ib, from Abu Sawrah, from Abu Ayyub, who said:
A Bedouin came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, “O Messenger of Allah, I love horses. Will there be horses in Paradise?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then related the above.
Al-Tirmidhi said:
“This is a good hadith, though its chain of transmission is not strong. We know it from Abu Ayyub only through this route. Abu Sawrah—who is Ayyub’s nephew—is declared weak in hadith. Yahya ibn Ma'in declared him very weak.” He also said: “I heard Muhammad ibn Isma'il say: ‘This Abu Sawrah is regarded as rejected in hadith; he narrates rejected reports from Abu Ayyub for which he is not corroborated.’”
I say: Wasil, too, is weak, as stated in al-Taqrib.
If it is asked: How could al-Tirmidhi classify the hadith as good while declaring its chain of transmission weak?
The answer is that there is nothing unusual in this, for the classification of it as good is in view of its corroborating reports. Al-Tirmidhi cited one of them in this chapter through the route of Asim ibn Ali: al-Mas'udi narrated to us from Alqamah ibn Marthad, from Sulayman ibn Buraydah, from his father:
A man asked the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, saying, “O Messenger of Allah, will there be horses in Paradise?” He replied:
“If Allah admits you into Paradise, then whenever you wish to ride in it upon a horse of red ruby that flies with you through Paradise wherever you wish, you shall do so.”