al-Awzāʿī narrated it to us in this manner. It was also recorded by al-Ṭabarānī and Ibn Mandah in Faith (2/372).

Ibn Saʿd recorded it in The Classes (7/508–509), as did Ibn Mandah and Ibn ʿAsākir through other routes from al-Awzāʿī.

It has a third route from Ṣāliḥ ibn Jubayr, transmitted in abbreviated form by Ḍamrah ibn Ḥabīb from Marzūq ibn Nāfiʿ, from him.

It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī, al-Harawī, Ibn Qāniʿ in Abū Jumʿah’s entry in the Compendium of the Companions, and Ibn ʿAsākir as well.

Its narrators are reliable, except for Marzūq ibn Nāfiʿ, who is known only through this narration. Ibn Ḥibbān included him on this basis in The Reliable Narrators (9/189).

After relating the report of Usayd, Ibn Mandah said:

“Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, Marzūq ibn Nāfiʿ, and others narrated this hadith from Ṣāliḥ ibn Jubayr; and this is an authentic, well-known chain of transmission.”

Note: As mentioned above, the versions of the hadith differ regarding the Companions’ question: was it worded:

“Is anyone greater in reward than us?”—as in the narration of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Ṣāliḥ ibn Jubayr?

Or was it worded:

“Better than us?”—as in the narration of Usayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and Marzūq ibn Nāfiʿ from Ṣāliḥ?

Al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in Fath al-Bārī (7/7) that the first wording is stronger, and it appears that he meant in terms of