First: the hadith master Ibn Kathir. Despite his extensive command of the hadiths in al-Musnad and his frequent attribution of reports to it—to the extent that it was said that he was among the most knowledgeable people concerning it—the hadith under discussion escaped him. Thus, in his exegesis of Surat al-Nasr (4/562), he mentioned only the hadith of Ibn Abbas through its two routes, as narrated by Ibn Jarir and al-Tabarani, as well as the mursal report of Ikrimah. He overlooked al-Bukhari’s narration of it from Ibn Abbas.

Second: the hadith master Ibn Hajar. Despite his well-known thoroughness in tracing the variant wordings of hadith in Fath al-Bari, documenting their sources, and, in most cases, distinguishing their authentic reports from their weak ones—such that we know of no equal to him in this regard—the hadith under discussion and the reports listed beneath it escaped him, except for the hadith of Hilal ibn Khabbab, which he cited only through al-Bazzar’s narration. This is despite the fact that he explained the Prophet’s saying, “The people of Yemen have come to you...” in more than one place in Fath al-Bari, and cited it in Atraf al-Musnad (8/36/10223) through Abd al-Razzaq, but without the verse of al-Nasr.

Third: the hadith master al-Suyuti. Although he mentioned the hadith under discussion in al-Durr al-Manthur (6/408), as well as the hadith of Ibn Abbas, he went far afield in tracing their sources: he attributed the former only to Ibn Mardawayh and the latter solely to Ibn Asakir, without commenting on either of their chains of transmission, as was his usual practice.

Fourth and finally: the statement of the editor of Tarikh al-Bukhari, who furnished it with beneficial scholarly annotations—the eminent Shaykh Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Muallimi al-Yamani. Commenting on the words in the hadith, “When there comes,” he said:

“It appears thus in the original manuscript. Perhaps what follows ‘When there comes’ has dropped out of the original manuscript. Allah knows best; that is, ‘When there comes’ was intended.”

I say: It has become clear—praise be to Allah—from this verification and documentation that what he meant was: “When there comes