- “When you ask Allah, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the heart of Paradise. One of you says to his shepherd, ‘Head for the heart of the valley, for it is its most verdant and luxuriant part.’”
It was reported by al-Bukhari in al-Tarikh (2/2/146), Ya‘qub al-Fasawi in al-Ma‘rifah wa al-Tarikh (2/348)—whose version provides the wording of the chain of transmission—al-Bazzar in his Musnad (4/191/3512, Kashf al-Astar), and al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (18/254/634), all through Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn al-‘Ala ibn Zubayriq, who said: ‘Amr ibn al-Harith ibn al-Dahhak narrated to me; ‘Abd Allah ibn Salim narrated to me from al-Zubaydi; ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi ‘Awf narrated to me that Suwayd ibn Jubalah related to them that al-‘Irbad ibn Sariyah related to them, attributing it to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—that he said: … and he cited it.
I say: This chain of transmission contains a weakness: this Ibn Zubayriq. Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but makes many errors.”
As for his shaykh, Ibn al-Dahhak, al-Hafiz said: “Acceptable.”
In my view, Suwayd ibn Jubalah is truthful. Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al-Thiqat (4/325), and four trustworthy narrators reported from him.
The remaining narrators in the chain are known to be trustworthy.
The hadith has two corroborating reports, from Abu Hurayrah and ‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit, which are more complete than this one. Their documentation has preceded under nos. 921 and 922.
Note: Al-Haythami contradicted himself, mentioning this hadith in two places. In the first of them (10/171), he said: