because it is possible that he was his namesake—the one whom Abū Ḥātim, along with the imams we have mentioned, declared trustworthy. When a proof admits of such a possibility, it can no longer be used as evidence. How then, when neither of the two has any connection to this hadith? Rather, he is Mūsā ibn Muslim al-Ṭaḥḥān, a trustworthy narrator, as appears in all the chains cited above. Al-Ḥākim erred in his father’s name, and then al-Dhahabī erred by following his error, declaring the hadith weak when it is authentic. Some ignorant people were misled by this, such as the three annotators of their new edition of al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī’s al-Targhīb. In their note on it (2/417/2312), they claimed that it is good on account of its supporting reports. This is false, for there is not even a single supporting report—let alone several—with its wording. Rather, it is singular, as Abū Nuʿaym stated above. They then quoted al-Dhahabī’s objection and his rebuttal of al-Ḥākim’s authentication, and endorsed it!

Among the errors of the editor of Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah is that, despite expressly stating that his exemplar contained “Mūsā ibn Muslim,” he rendered it as “Mūsā ibn Sālim” and printed it that way. In his note, he explicitly stated that he had taken it from al-Mustadrak! Layers of darkness, one above another. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

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3359—“Whoever sends blessings upon me once, Allah records for him ten good deeds thereby.”

Ibn Ḥibbān recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2/130–131/902, al-Iḥsān), as did Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī in The Virtue of Sending Blessings upon the Prophet (7/11), Aḥmad (2/262), and Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (5/218), through the chain of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: … and he mentioned it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy narrators of Muslim, and the criticism concerning ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq—who was the Medinan al-Baṣrī—does not impair it. Moreover, he was corroborated, as will follow.

A group also narrated it from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān with the wording: