“Then Nāfiʿ wept.” Ibn Kathīr said:

“This is a sound chain of transmission. However, al-Bazzār said: ‘Someone else narrated it from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Nāfiʿ, as a mursal report.’”

I say: He neither identified who this “someone else” was, nor mentioned his chain of transmission to him, and I do not know him. Even if it were authentic, it would cause no harm, since al-ʿAnqazī transmitted it with a connected chain, corroborating Dāwūd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; both narrated it from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, corroborating ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs in his narration from him. Thus, these three trustworthy narrators transmitted it with a connected chain, and the contrary transmission of whoever narrated it as mursal does not harm them, whatever his standing may be. This is especially so since ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar was corroborated in his chain by Miskīn Abū Fāṭimah, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, as in the hadith under discussion.

It also has two abridged supporting narrations from the hadiths of ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās, whose documentation has preceded under no. 1695.

Note: In documenting the hadith concerning the Friday bath mentioned earlier at the beginning of this discussion, I had relied upon Abū Ḥātim’s and al-Dāraquṭnī’s grading of Miskīn ibn ʿAbd Allāh as weak. But after this investigation concerning him, which Allah enabled me to undertake, and after tracing the trustworthy narrators who transmitted from him, I have retracted my declaration that he was weak. I ask Allah Most High for more of His bounty and His enabling grace. Allah has spoken the truth: “Whatever blessing you have is from Allah.” [1]

I then found another chain from Ibn ʿUmar, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“Saʿd was squeezed once in his grave, so I asked Allah to lighten it for him.”

Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (3/205/2), from ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:

“The Throne shook because Allah loved to meet Saʿd. The Prophet ﷺ was the last of them to emerge from his grave, and he said: ...” Then he related it.