some of them lengthy and some abridged. The fullest of them is the route of Ikrimah ibn Ammar in Sahih Muslim.

Ikrimah ibn Ammar—that is, Ikrimah—is sound in his hadith narrations from narrators other than Yahya ibn Abi Kathir. As for his narrations from Yahya in particular, the scholars have criticized them. Hence, al-Hafiz said in his biographical entry:

“Truthful, but makes mistakes. His narrations from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir contain inconsistency, and he had no written record.”

I say: Who is there that does not make mistakes? Indeed, his narration of this hadith is among the strongest proofs of his retention and precision in what he narrates. More than one narrator corroborated him from Salamah in some of its passages, and some of them are found in the two Sahih collections. See, if you wish, nos. 4532, 4540, 4543, and 4551 in Tuhfat al-Ashraf.

I have found a corroborating narration for the hadith under discussion, but it contains someone whose corroboration offers no cause for satisfaction. Al-Tabarani said under the previously cited number, 6300: Muhammad ibn Yunus narrated to us; Nasir ibn Ali narrated to us; Hammad ibn Masadah informed us, from Yazid ibn Abi Ubayd, from Salamah, who said:

“My uncle Amir came and said, ‘Give me your weapon.’ So I gave it to him. Then I came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and said, ‘Provide me with a weapon.’ He said, ‘Then where is your weapon?’ I said, ‘I gave it to my uncle Amir.’ He said, ‘I find no one like you except the one who said: “Give me a brother dearer to me than myself.”’ So he gave me his bow, his shield, and three arrows from his quiver.”

I say: This Muhammad ibn Yunus was al-Usfuri, known as al-Kudaymi, and he was accused of fabricating hadith. *