“Take up your shield.”

They asked, “Messenger of Allah, is there an enemy at hand?” He said:

“No; rather, your shield against the Fire is to say: ‘Glory be to Allah ...’” He then mentioned the four phrases, adding: “For on the Day of Resurrection, they will come warding off [the Fire] and following [their speaker], and they are the enduring righteous deeds.”

Al-Nasāʾī recorded it in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa-al-Laylah (488/848), Ibn Abī Ḥātim in al-ʿIlal (2/100/1793), al-Ḥākim (1/549), and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān (1/425/606).

Dāwūd ibn Bilāl al-Saʿdī corroborated him, saying: “ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muslim al-Qusmalī narrated it to us with the same chain.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Awsaṭ (5/26/4039) and al-Duʿāʾ (3/1561/1682), and said:

“No one narrated it from Ibn ʿAjlān except ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and no one narrated it from him except Abū ʿUmar al-Ḥawḍī and Ibn Bilāl.”

I say: Both are trustworthy. Al-Ḥākim said:

“Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria!”

Al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

Abū Ḥātim declared it defective on the basis of an unusual hidden defect. His son related from him that he said:

“We had considered this report singular, until Aḥmad ibn Yūnus narrated to us from Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, from Ibn ʿAjlān, from a man of Alexandria, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. I then realized that the narration of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muslim had been corrupted, thereby exposing its flaw; and Fuḍayl’s hadith is more likely to be correct.”

I say: There can be no doubt that Fuḍayl is more trustworthy than ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—al-Qusmalī—although