“… Allah sends blessings upon him tenfold thereby.”

Muslim and others narrated it, and al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it authentic. It is also cited in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (1369).

I say: The narration of that group does not impair the narration of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq, for he was corroborated through another route, and it has supporting reports. As for the route, Imam Aḥmad said immediately after it: “Abū Kāmil narrated to us; Ḥammād narrated to us, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, with the same wording.”

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, its narrators being trustworthy narrators of Muslim, were it not interrupted between Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ and Abū Hurayrah. For Suhayl narrates very many hadiths from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, in Muslim and elsewhere. It is therefore possible that the original reading was: “Suhayl, from Abū Ṣāliḥ,” but that the particle ʿan (“from”) was altered by one of the copyists into ibn (“son of”), thereby producing the interruption. This possibility is supported by the fact that Imam Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy on him, narrated immediately after it two hadiths through this very same chain with the correct wording: “Suhayl, from Abū Ṣāliḥ.” He also narrated other hadiths through his shaykh Abū Kāmil: “Zuhayr narrated to us; Suhayl narrated to us from his father.”

If this is established, then the chain is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria. Shaykh Aḥmad Shākir, may Allah have mercy on him, discussed this point in his notes on al-Musnad (13/286); consult it if you wish.

As for the supporting reports, two of them are found in The Virtue of Sending Blessings upon the Prophet (nos. 10 and 12), while the third is found in al-Nasāʾī’s The Daily Practice (nos. 64 and 65) and al-Aṣbahānī’s al-Targhīb (2/683–684). One of the two supporting reports is found in al-Mundhirī’s al-Targhīb (2/278), from the hadith of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf. He indicated that it was strengthened, and likewise indicated that the hadith under discussion was strengthened. However, he stated that it occurs “in some of al-Tirmidhī’s wordings.” This is an error, for it is not found in