I say: This chain of transmission is weak, for ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib had suffered memory deterioration.
As for ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb, al-Ḥāfiẓ said:
“Trustworthy and a proficient hadith master, though he has some objectionable reports.”
I say: He was corroborated, for al-Ḥākim (3/206), al-Bazzār (3/256/2697), Ibn Abī Shaybah (12/142–143), and Ibn Saʿd (3/433) transmitted it by way of Ibn Fuḍayl, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, through the same chain. Its wording is:
“Saʿd was squeezed once in the grave, so I supplicated Allah to remove it from him.”
Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him!
This is one of their errors, for ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib’s memory deterioration is established among the scholars. Al-Dhahabī himself mentioned this in his biography in al-Mīzān, stating that the hadith of those who narrated from him early on is sound. Neither ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Ḥarb nor Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl was among them. Therefore, the hadith is weak because of his memory deterioration—especially since there are many hadiths concerning the squeezing of the grave suffered by Saʿd. Al-Suyūṭī cited a number of them in Sharḥ al-Ṣudūr (pp. 44–45), and none of them contains the wording: “So I asked Allah to lighten it for him,” or: “So I supplicated Allah to remove it from him.” Notice also the difference between “lighten” and “remove.” *
- “Are you amazed at this? By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, Saʿd ibn Muʿādh’s handkerchiefs in Paradise are better than it.”
Al-Bazzār transmitted it in his Musnad (3/257–258): Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us: Sālim ibn Nūḥ narrated to us: ʿUmar ibn ʿĀmir narrated to us from Qatādah, from Anas: