Isma'il is unanimously regarded as trustworthy, particularly in his narrations from al-Jurayri, who was alleged to have suffered some confusion in his later years. Isma'il narrated from him before that confusion, so his narration is unquestionably the weightier one.

This is not contradicted by Ibn Sa'd’s narration in al-Tabaqat (1/185), through al-Salt ibn Dinar, from Abdullah ibn Shuqayq, from Abu Sakhr al-Uqayli, who said: “I set out for Medina...” to the end of the hadith.

I say: This does not contradict the preference stated above, for this al-Salt is very weak—abandoned.

Moreover, al-Haythami did not know Abu Sakhr al-Uqayli, and so he said after the hadith (8/234):

“Ahmad narrated it. I do not know Abu Sakhr, while the rest of its narrators are narrators of the Sahih!”

This is strange on his part, for he was among the people most familiar with Ibn Hibban’s Thiqāt (Reliable Narrators), owing to how frequently he relied upon and cited it. He also arranged it alphabetically and incorporated into it the names of the Companions alongside those of others; he did the same in the section on kunyahs. He included Abu Sakhr therein and indicated his Companionship by placing the number (1) at the beginning of his kunyah (3/166/2, facsimile edition).

As for the supporting report, Hammād ibn Salamah narrates it from Ata ibn al-Sa'ib, from Abu Ubaydah ibn Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, from his father, Ibn Mas'ud, who said:

Allah, Mighty and Majestic, sent His Prophet to bring a man into Paradise. He entered a church and found Jews there, with a Jew reading the Torah to them. When they came to the description of the Prophet, they stopped. In one part of it was a sick man, and the Prophet said:

“What is the matter with you that you stopped?”

The sick man said: “They came to the description of a prophet and then stopped!” Then the sick man came crawling until