- “This is Sālim, the freedman of Abū Ḥudhayfah. Praise be to Allah, who has placed among my Ummah one like him.”
Ibn Mājah (1338)—whose wording is cited here—Ibn Naṣr in Qiyām al-Layl (p. 55), Aḥmad (6/165), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (1/371), and al-Ḥākim (3/325) narrated it through two routes from Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān, who heard ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ al-Jumaḥī relate from ʿĀʾishah, the wife of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who said:
“One night, during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), I was late returning after the night prayer. When I came, he asked, ‘Where were you?’
“I replied, ‘I was listening to the recitation of one of your Companions. I have never heard anyone with a recitation or voice like his.’”
She said: “So he rose, and I rose with him, until he listened to him. Then he turned to me and said…” Then he cited it.
Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs!” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him.
That is what they both said, but it involves two issues:
First, al-Bukhārī did not include any reports from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ.
Second, I have not found anyone who explicitly stated that Ibn Sābiṭ heard from ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her). He narrated mursal reports from many Companions, and Muslim narrated from him one hadith from ʿĀʾishah through an intermediary—as al-Khazrajī stated in al-Khulāṣah. Thus, there is a possibility of a break in the chain. It was perhaps for this reason that al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī said in his Takhrīj al-Iḥyāʾ, after attributing it to Ibn Mājah (1):