326 — “Indeed, your companion is being washed by the angels”—meaning Hanzalah.

Al-Ḥākim (3/204) and al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (4/15) narrated from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me, from his father, from his grandfather—may Allah be pleased with him—that he said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—say, when Hanzalah ibn Abī ʿĀmir was killed after he and Abū Sufyān ibn al-Ḥārith had met in combat, and Shaddād ibn al-Aswad overcame him with the sword and killed him: [he mentioned it].

They asked his wife, and she said: “He went out when he heard the alarm, while he was in a state of major ritual impurity.” The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “That is why the angels washed him.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s condition.” Al-Dhahabī made no comment on it. It is, however, only good, because Muslim only included Ibn Isḥāq’s narrations as corroborating reports.

It has a supporting report recorded by Ibn ʿAsākir (2/296/1), from ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ, who said: Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah informed us, from Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said:

“The two tribes of al-Aws and al-Khazraj boasted to one another. Al-Aws said: ‘Among us is the one washed by the angels, Hanzalah ibn al-Rāhib—the Monk. Among us is the one for whom the Throne of the Most Merciful shook. Among us is ʿĀṣim ibn Thābit ibn al-Aflaḥ, whom the hornets protected. And among us is Khuzaymah ibn Thābit, whose testimony was accepted as equal to the testimony of two men.’

“The Khazrajis then said: ‘Among us are four who compiled the Quran, which no one besides them compiled: Zayd ibn Thābit, Abū Zayd, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, and Muʿādh ibn Jabal.’”

Ibn ʿAsākir said: “This is a good, authentic hadith.”