the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—may have spoken words that happened to fall into metrical form without intending to do so; such speech is not called poetry, as al-Hafiz established in al-Fath (10/541–542). Refer to it, for it is important.
- “You will continue to be in a state of goodness so long as there remains among you one who saw me and kept my company. By Allah, you will continue to be in a state of goodness so long as there remains among you one who saw someone who saw me and kept company with someone who kept my company. By Allah, you will continue to be in a state of goodness so long as there remains among you one who saw someone who saw someone who saw me, and kept company with someone who kept company with someone who kept my company.”
It was recorded by Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah in al-Musannaf (12/178/4/12463), and through his route by Ibn Abi Asim in al-Sunnah (2/630/1480)—whose wording is cited here, and it is more complete—and also by al-Tabarani from him in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (22/85/207): Zayd ibn al-Hubab related to us; Abdullah ibn al-Ala, Abu al-Zubayr al-Dimashqi, related to us; Abdullah ibn Amir related to us from Wathilah ibn al-Asqa, who said: The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: … and he then mentioned it.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission, and its narrators are narrators of the Sahih. Al-Hafiz said in al-Fath (5/7):
“Recorded by Ibn Abi Shaybah, and its chain of transmission is good.”
I say: He did not declare it authentic only because, although Zayd ibn al-Hubab was one of Muslim’s narrators, there is some criticism of his retention. For this reason, al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib:
“Truthful, but errs in reports from al-Thawri.”
Such a matter is minor in a case like this, especially since he was corroborated. Thus, Ibn al-Sammak said in his Hadith collection (2/22/2): Mudar ibn Muhammad al-Asadi related to us; Safwan ibn Salih related to us; al-Walid ibn