whether Ibn Ubayy ibn Kaʿb refers to Muḥammad the son or Muḥammad the grandson. This is despite al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿAsqalānī’s certainty that it is the former. Ibn Saʿd (5/76) and Ibn Ḥibbān, as mentioned above, declared him reliable, whereas no one other than Ibn Ḥibbān declared the latter reliable.
Nevertheless, I consider the hadith authentic and soundly established, because Ibn Ubayy—besides being the son of an eminent Companion—was narrated from by at least two reliable men: Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr and al-Ḥaḍramī ibn Lāḥiq. Al-Ḥākim and al-Dhahabī authenticated this hadith, while Ibn Kathīr (1/305) and al-Suyūṭī, in al-Durr (1/322), made no comment on it. And Allah knows best.
Note: Al-Suyūṭī cited the hadith in al-Durr with an additional wording at its end:
“...the Verse of the Throne in Surat al-Baqarah. Whoever recites it in the evening will be under Our protection until morning, and whoever recites it in the morning will be under Our protection until evening. Then, when morning came, he went to the Messenger of Allah ...”
—end of the hadith. He attributed it to those mentioned previously, except al-Ḥārith. Yet none of them contains this addition. It may possibly be found in Musnad Abī Yaʿlā al-Kabīr. I have cited its chain of transmission from al-Ḥāfiẓ and explained the anomaly and contradiction in its chain; thus, it is possible that this addition occurs there, for I have not come across its text in that work. In any case, it is an anomalous addition. And Allah knows best. *
3246—“You will campaign against the Arabian Peninsula, and Allah will grant you victory over it; then against Persia, and Allah will grant you victory over it; then you will campaign against the Romans, and Allah will grant you victory over them; then you will campaign against the Dajjāl, and Allah will grant you victory over him.”
Muslim (8/178) and Ibn Mājah (4091) narrated it through Ibn Abī Shaybah—this is found in al-Muṣannaf (15/146–147)—as did Aḥmad (4/178), al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh (4/2/81–82), and Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Āḥād (1/462/642), through the route of