indeed, this hadith itself points to its weakness, for he has confused it and corrupted its meaning. The established wording in the reports of other narrators distributes these three dwellings among three persons. There are reports to this effect from Abu Umamah and Anas ibn Malik, and both agree that the house in the highest part of Paradise is for the one of good character. This is contrary to the present report, which assigns him the house in its lowest part—if we take the order stated in it as an ordered correspondence.

The two reports mentioned differ, however, regarding the other two houses. Abu Umamah’s report assigns the house in the outskirts of Paradise to the one who abandons disputation even when he is right, and the house in its middle to the one who abandons lying; Anas’s report reverses this. We therefore sought to give preference to one of them over the other through a corroborating report, but found none with a better chain of transmission than this one. Yet you have already seen the corruption in the meaning of its text.

We did, however, find another hadith that may serve as a corroborating report for the hadith of Abu Umamah. Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir (p. 166) and in his other two Mu'jams, through Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Qassas, who said: “Isa ibn Shu'ayb narrated to us, from Rawh ibn al-Qasim, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Malik ibn Amir, from Mu'adh ibn Jabal, as a Prophetic report:

“I guarantee a house in the outskirts of Paradise, a house in the middle of Paradise, and a house in the highest part of Paradise for one who abandons disputation even when he is right, abandons lying even in jest, and has good character.”

Al-Tabarani said:

“No one narrated it from Rawh except Isa; Ibn al-Husayn alone narrated it.”

I say: I could not find any biographical entry for him.

As for Isa ibn Shu'ayb, the grammarian, al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib:

“Truthful, but prone to errors.”

Al-Haythami said in al-Majma' (8/23):

“It was narrated by al-Tabarani in his three Mu'jams and by al-Bazzar. In al-Tabarani’s chain is Muhammad ibn al-Husayn