He said: Abu Jahl said, “If I see the Messenger of Allah praying at the Kaʿbah, I shall go to him and trample on his neck!” He said:

“If he had done so, the angels would have seized him in plain sight. Had the Jews wished for death, they would have died and seen their places in the Fire. And had those who engaged in mutual imprecation with the Messenger of Allah come forth, they would have returned to find neither wealth nor family.”

Furat was Ibn Salman, and he was trustworthy.

As for Ismaʿil ibn Yazid al-Raqqi, who narrated from him, I have not identified him. In al-Taʿjil, al-Hafiz claimed that he was Ismaʿil ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Khalid al-Raqqi, mentioned in al-Tahdhib. But Shaykh Ahmad Shakir—may Allah have mercy on him—declared him mistaken in this on grounds that he cited, and they are compelling. He concluded that he was someone else, and said:

“Ahmad exercised care in selecting his shaykhs, and narrated only from a trustworthy narrator. On that basis, we deemed his hadith authentic.”

That is what he said. And Allah knows best.

Yes, his hadith is authentic, for I found a strong corroborating narration for it. Abu Yaʿla said in his Musnad (4/471/2604): Zuhayr narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allah narrated to us the complete report, like Furat’s narration.

This is an authentic chain of transmission meeting the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim.

Maʿmar also corroborated him from ʿUbayd Allah through the same chain, in a highly abridged form; it contains only his statement: “If he had done so, the angels would have seized him in plain sight.”

It was recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzaq in his Tafsir (1/52 and 2/334), and through his route by al-Bukhari (4958).