4002 — “He was praying while al-Hasan and al-Husayn were playing and sitting on his back. The Muslims began to move them away, but when he had finished, he said:

‘Leave them be—may my father and mother be ransomed for them. Whoever loves me, let him love these two.’”

Abu Nuʿaym recorded it in al-Ḥilyah (8/305), through al-Husayn ibn Zurayq al-Kufi: Abu Bakr ibn ʿAyyash narrated to us from ʿAsim, from Zirr, from ʿAbdullah, who said: … and he cited it as a report traced back to the Prophet. He said:

“A singular report from ʿAsim; no one narrated it except Abu Bakr.”

I say: Both are trustworthy, but I have found no biographical notice for al-Husayn ibn Zurayq al-Kufi.

However, he was corroborated by the hadith master Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah, who said in al-Muṣannaf (12/95/12223): Abu Bakr ibn ʿAyyash narrated it to us likewise.

Ibn Khuzaymah (887) and Ibn Hibban (2233, Mawarid) also recorded it through a third route from Ibn ʿAyyash, likewise.

I say: The chain of transmission is good.

It is authentic on account of its corroborating reports, one of which is the hadith of Shaddad ibn al-Had in Ṣifat al-Ṣalah. *

4003 — “Whoever wishes to look upon a man among the people of Paradise, let him look upon al-Husayn ibn ʿAli.”

Abu Yaʿla recorded it in his Musnad (3/1874; 102/1, second Maktab edition), and Ibn Hibban (2237) narrated it from him, from al-Rabiʿ ibn Saʿd al-Juʿfi, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Sabit, from Jabir, as a report traced back to the Prophet.