“A good hadith, and we do not know of Abū Qilābah having heard from ʿĀʾishah.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “Its narrators, one and all, are trustworthy according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, though they did not record it.”

Al-Dhahabī criticized him, saying: “I say: There is a break in its chain.”

I say: Al-Ḥākim himself noticed this at the beginning of his book. After citing the hadith from Abū Hurayrah through the two chains from him (1/4), he said:

“This hadith has also been narrated from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Abū Hurayrah, and from Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb, from Anas. Ibn ʿUlayyah narrated it from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, from Abū Qilābah, from ʿĀʾishah; but I fear that Abū Qilābah did not hear it from ʿĀʾishah.”

Al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

I say: Thus, the hadith with this chain of transmission and this wording is weak. Ibn Abī Shaybah (12/185/1) transmitted its first part. However, it is authentically reported from her with different wording:

“The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best of you to my family. When your companion dies, then leave him alone.”

285 — “The best of you are those who are best to their families, and I am the best of you to my family. When your companion dies, then leave him alone.”

Al-Tirmidhī (2/323), al-Dārimī (2/159), and Ibn Ḥibbān (1312) recorded it from Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, who said: Sufyān narrated to us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: He said: