until they came to him, and they proved to be two men from Madhhij. One of them then approached him to pledge allegiance. When he took his hand, he said:

“O Messenger of Allah, what do you say of one who sees you, believes in you, affirms you, and follows you? What is there for him?” He replied:

“Blessed is he.”

He then passed his hand over his hand and departed.

Then the other one came forward and took his hand to pledge allegiance. He said, “O Messenger of Allah, what do you say of one who believes in you, affirms you, and follows you, but has not seen you?” He said: ... Then he mentioned the hadith. He then passed his hand over his hand and departed.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Sahihs, except that neither of them relied upon Ibn Ishaq as evidence: al-Bukhari narrated from him in a suspended report, and Muslim in a corroborating report. His hadith is good when he explicitly states that he heard it directly, and he has done so here. Al-Haythami said (10/67):

“Ahmad narrated it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih, apart from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, who explicitly stated that he heard it.”

I say: To complete the benefit, he should have explicitly stated that its chain is good. He did so in the following narration—and how well he did—for the reason that follows.

The hadith was also narrated by al-Bazzar (3/290–291/2769) and al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (22/389/742), through two other routes from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, with the same chain. However, regarding the second man, it gives the same question and answer as it gives for the first man. Al-Haythami said (10/18):