in al-Targhīb (3/167/2), as you see above, attributing it to al-Bukhārī and Muslim. This made me doubt the attribution, and it became clear that it involved a degree of laxity, for it is not found in either of them with this wording—particularly in al-Bukhārī, where it is abridged. The wording is Muslim’s, but without the addition; that addition is found in both of them through the other route, as mentioned earlier. Thus, he constructed a composite wording that is not found at all in any of those numerous sources. He often does the same, and al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Nājī critiques him for it in his ʿUjālah; but he did not address it here. This, then, is why this investigation was necessary.
To complete it, I found that the three annotators had blindly followed al-Mundhirī in that composite formulation, and went further by citing al-Bukhārī and Muslim with reference numbers—as is their habit. They can do nothing but this; indeed, they cannot even do this properly! For they said (3/176):
“Reported by al-Bukhārī (7056) and Muslim (1709)!”
Yet when you consult the first reference number, you find that it begins with the words:
“Then he said concerning what he had taken from us when we pledged to hear and obey …”
Such was the extent of their heedlessness that, alongside the reference they cited, they failed to mention the preceding number—as I noted earlier. That number begins with al-Bukhārī’s chain of transmission, ending with Junādah, from ʿUbādah, who said: “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called us, and we pledged allegiance to him …”
This is how this single hadith was printed in al-Bukhārī with the commentary Fatḥ al-Bārī: under two numbers. Consequently, these ignorant offenders against the Sunnah were misled by it and failed to notice the beginning of the hadith, for their aim is to pose as researchers, not as critical editors, and to fill lines with numbers! I have already explained that this hadith of Junādah is abridged, and therefore does not contain the final clause: “and that we speak the truth …,” and so forth. Rather, it occurs in the hadith of ʿUbādah ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUbādah, which they did not identify by its reference number in either al-Bukhārī or Muslim. As for al-Bukhārī, this is clear from their restricting themselves to the reference cited above, which does not point to the hadith in its entirety.