3135 — “That was Gabriel, peace be upon him. Among you are men such that, if one of them were to swear an oath by Allah, He would fulfil it for him.”

It was recorded by al-Bazzar in his Musnad (3/306–307, al-Kashf), and by al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (12/11–12) and al-Awsat (1/153/1/2873). Through al-Tabarani’s route, it was also recorded by al-Diya in al-Mukhtarah (59/212/1–2), and by al-Bayhaqi in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah (7/76), through several routes from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab al-Harithi, who said: Yaʿqub al-Qummi narrated to us from Jaʿfar ibn Abi al-Mughirah, from Saʿid ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbas, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited a man from the Ansar. As he drew near the man’s house, he heard him speaking to someone inside. When he sought permission to enter and went in, he saw no one. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him:

“I heard you speaking to someone else.”

He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, I had gone inside distressed by what people were saying about the fever that had afflicted me. Then someone came in to me; after you, I have never seen a man with a more dignified bearing or finer speech than his.” He said … and then mentioned it.

Al-Bazzar—and likewise al-Tabarani—said:

“It is not narrated from Ibn ʿAbbas except through this chain of transmission.”

I say: Its chain of transmission is good. Al-Khatib gave a biographical notice for this al-Harithi in al-Tarikh (2/390–391), citing reports from him by a number of trustworthy scholars and leading hadith authorities. He then related from the hadith authority Abu ʿAli Salih ibn Muhammad—known as Jazrah—(1) that he said: “Trustworthy.” Ibn Hibban included him among the trustworthy narrators in al-Thiqat (9/83), citing a report from the hadith authority ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Baghawi, and then said:

“He may occasionally err.”