Although this chain of transmission is weak, owing to the state of Ibn Abī Farwah and the narrator who relates from him, the hadith has a strong supporting report narrated by Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, from Saʿīd ibn al-Ḥārith, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Saʿīd, with similar wording but without mention of the hedgehog. It includes:

“Take this, for it will illuminate ten [paces] ahead of you and ten behind you.”

Aḥmad (3/65) and al-Bazzār (1/296–297) related it at length. It contains the story of the palm stalks, the prohibition against spitting in front of oneself, and the forgetting of the hour during which supplications are answered on Friday. Ibn Khuzaymah (881 and 1741) and al-Ḥākim (1/279) also related part of it. Al-Ḥākim said:

“Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.”

Al-Dhahabī concurred with him.

Their assessment would be correct, were it not that Fulayḥ has been criticized with respect to his precision. For this reason, al-Dhahabī said no more about him in al-Kāshif than:

“Ibn Maʿīn, Abū Ḥātim, and al-Nasāʾī said: He is not strong.”

Ibn Ḥajar said: “Truthful, but makes many errors.”

So far as I know, he alone narrated the statement that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forgot the hour during which supplications are answered on Friday. For this reason, I had included it in al-Ḍaʿīfah (1177).

As for his narration of this story of Qatādah, when I found this route through the narration of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar from his father, I was reassured and satisfied as to its authenticity. I therefore hastened to include it here as one of his miracles, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Haythamī said regarding the hadith under discussion (2/41):