They replied, “Allah is our Lord”—and in Abu Ya‘la’s version: “You are our Prophet”—“in private and in public.” He then continued, and cited the rest of it.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from al-Harith ibn Ubayd, Abu Qudamah al-Iyadi, the caller to prayer, who is weak. Ahmad said:

“His hadith reports are inconsistent.”

I say: This is evident in his narration of this hadith. For this reason, al-Dhahabi said in al-Kashif: “He is not strong, and Ibn Ma‘in declared him weak.”

However, he was corroborated by Ghassan ibn Burzin al-Tahawi, who narrated to us from Thabit al-Bunani, from Anas ibn Malik, who said:

One day, the Companions of the Prophet went out and said, “O Messenger of Allah, by the Lord of the Ka‘bah, we are ruined!” He said:

“What is the matter?”

They said, “Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!” He said:

“Do you not testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah alone, with no partner, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger?”

They said, “Certainly.” He said:

“That is not hypocrisy.”

Then they came back a second time and said, “O Messenger of Allah, by the Lord of the Ka‘bah, we are ruined!” He said:

“And what is the matter?”

They said, “Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy!” He said:

“Do you not testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger?”

They said, “Certainly.” He said:

“That is not hypocrisy.”

He said: Then they came back a third time and said, “O Messenger of Allah, by the Lord of the Ka‘bah, we are ruined!” He said:

“What is the matter?”