A man from the Ansar [known as Abu Talhah] said, “I will.” So he took him to his wife and said, “Honor the guest of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, [and do not hold anything back].” She replied, “[By Allah!] We have nothing but enough food for the children!” He said, “Prepare your food, tend to your lamp, and put the children to sleep when they ask for supper.” She prepared her food, tended to her lamp, and put her children to sleep. Then she got up as though to adjust her lamp and extinguished it. The two of them made him think that they were eating, [while the guest ate], and they spent the night hungry. When morning came, he went to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he said … then he related the rest of it.

The wording is that of al-Adab al-Mufrad, while the additions are from Muslim—though some of them are from al-Bukhari. Al-Tirmidhi said: “This hadith is good and authentic.”

Yazid ibn Kaysan also narrated it from Abu Hazim, in a very abridged form and without the story. Ibn Abi Asim transmitted it in al-Sunnah (1/250/570).

Important Note: Al-Bayhaqi mentioned in al-Asmaʾ, shortly before and shortly after this hadith, that al-Khattabi said:

“Al-Bukhari said: ‘The meaning of laughter is mercy.’”

I say: this attribution to al-Bukhari is open to question, for it is a suspended, interrupted report; neither al-Khattabi nor al-Bayhaqi mentioned his source for it. Moreover, the person most knowledgeable about al-Bukhari—namely, al-Hafiz al-Asqalani—did not come across it, for he said immediately afterward:

“I say: I did not find this in the copies of al-Bukhari available to us.”

What further confirms that this is not authentically established from al-Bukhari is that we know with certainty that he was one of the foremost imams of