Thus, these are five of the leading imams of hadith who explicitly declared this hadith authentic. This is also what sound scholarly hadith criticism indicates, as has been established above. I know of no one whose knowledge and expertise in this field carries weight who differed from them, apart from Yahya ibn Sa‘id al-Qattan in his previously mentioned statement. You have already seen the response of the two hadith masters, al-Dhahabi and Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, to him, so there is no need to repeat it.

Yet the eminent judge Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—made remarks in his book al-‘Awasim min al-Qawasim which, on their apparent meaning, may suggest that he was inclined to reject this hadith and was exceedingly emphatic in doing so. In a section entitled “ʿAsimah” (p. 161), he said:

“As for what you have mentioned regarding the testimony concerning the waters of Haw’ab, you have incurred the gravest loss by relating it. Nothing of what you have mentioned occurred; the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—did not say that hadith; none of that discussion took place; and no one gave the testimony attributed to them. You have ascribed this false testimony to them in writing, and you will be questioned.”

By “the testimony,” he was referring to what he had previously mentioned in a section entitled “Qasimah” (p. 148):

“They came to the waters of Haw’ab, and its dogs barked. ‘A’ishah asked, and she was told: ‘This is the water of Haw’ab.’ So she turned her camel back from it, because she had heard the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—say: ‘Which of you will be the rider of the shaggy camel, at whom the dogs of Haw’ab will bark?’ Talhah and al-Zubayr, along with fifty men, testified that this was not the water of Haw’ab. This was the first false testimony to occur in Islam.”

I say: Although we agree with him in rejecting the claim that this testimony took place—for Allah, Exalted is He, preserved the Companions of His Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—from such a thing, especially those among them who were of the Ten given glad tidings of Paradise, such as Talhah and al-Zubayr—we reject his statement: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—did not say that hadith!” How could he say this when it has been authentically established from him, through an authentic chain of transmission, in several well-known sunnah sources among the scholars?!