3188—“After me, you will encounter tribulation and dissension—or, he said, dissension and tribulation.” A man asked him, “Whom should we follow, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “Hold fast to the trustworthy one and his companions,” while indicating ʿUthmān.
Al-Ḥākim (3/99 and 4/433–434) and Aḥmad (2/345) reported it through Wahīb ibn Khālid, who said: Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah narrated to us; he said: My maternal grandfather, Abū Ḥabībah, related to me—in one narration of al-Ḥākim: “Mūsā, Muḥammad, and Ibrāhīm, the sons of ʿUqbah, narrated to us. They said: Our maternal grandfather, Abū Ḥabībah, narrated to us”—that he entered the house while ʿUthmān was under siege therein, and that he heard Abū Hurayrah ask ʿUthmān’s permission to speak. He gave him permission, so Abū Hurayrah rose, praised Allah and extolled Him, then said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say …” He then cited it.
Al-Ḥākim said in both places: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him.
I say: Its narrators are trustworthy narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections, apart from this Abū Ḥabībah. Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him among the kunyas of the trustworthy Successors (5/591), and al-ʿIjlī said in his al-Thiqāt (495/1929): “A Medinan Successor, trustworthy.”
He is described as the client of ʿUrwah, perhaps by inheritance, for he was the client of al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿUrwah’s father, as stated in al-Bukhārī’s al-Tārīkh (the section on kunyas, 24/184), al-Jarḥ (4/2/359), and other works. They also state that Abū al-Aswad—Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—narrated from him. Like Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, he is trustworthy and among the narrators of the two Shaykhs. His two brothers, who are mentioned alongside him in al-Ḥākim’s narration, are likewise trustworthy, and they are among Muslim’s narrators. Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim mentioned the three brothers in al-Asmāʾ wa-al-Kunā as narrators from Abū Ḥabībah. Thus, four trustworthy men narrated from him; moreover, he was a Successor. He is therefore trustworthy, Allah willing.