recognize him—the “demolisher”! He then attributed another narration—also found in the Sahih—to al-Tabari, and declared it defective because of a narrator who does not occur in it at all! “Layers of darkness, one above another. And whoever Allah does not grant light has no light.” I have detailed there what I have summarized here in my refutation of him, al-Nasihah (p. 270).*

3076—“Cover the vessel and tie the waterskin securely, for each year has a night on which an epidemic descends. It does not pass by any vessel that has not been covered, or any waterskin that has not been tied, without some of that epidemic falling into it.”

Imam Ahmad recorded it (3/355): Yunus narrated to us: Layth narrated to us from Yazid—meaning Ibn al-Had—from Yahya ibn Sa‘id, from Ja‘far ibn ‘Abdullah ibn al-Hakam, from al-Qa‘qa‘ ibn Hakim, from Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah al-Ansari, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say … and he then cited it.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission meeting the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim, except that al-Bukhari did not narrate from Ja‘far ibn ‘Abdullah and his teacher al-Qa‘qa‘ except in al-Adab al-Mufrad. Muslim, however, recorded their hadith, as will follow.

Layth was the Egyptian imam Layth ibn Sa‘d.

Yunus was Yunus ibn Muhammad, Abu Muhammad al-Mu’addib, who was trustworthy and precise.

Al-Bayhaqi also recorded the hadith in Shu‘ab al-Iman (5/127/6059, Beirut) through this chain of Yunus.

Yunus was corroborated by Hashim ibn al-Qasim, Abu al-Nadr, who was likewise trustworthy and precise.

It was recorded by Muslim (6/107), and through him by al-Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunnah (11/392/3061) and Abu ‘Awanah (5/334).