The Best Position Among People
17 - ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, Abū Khaythama narrated to us, he said: Yūnus ibn Muḥammad narrated to us, Fulayḥ narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Saʿīd ibn Yasār, from Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah, Peace and blessings of God be upon him, said: "Shall I not inform you of the person in the best position? A man holding the reins of his horse in the cause of Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He. Shall I not inform you of the person in the best position after him? A man who isolates himself with a small flock of sheep he owns, performing the Prayer, paying the Zakat, and worshipping Allah, associating nothing with Him." (1)
Notes
- (1) Its chain of transmission is Hasan (Good), and the hadith is Sahih (Authentic):
It was transmitted by Aḥmad (2/523), Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Jihād (no. 155), Ibn Manda in al-Īmān (454), al-Ḥākim (2/67), and Shams al-Dīn al-Maqdisī in Faḍl al-Jihād wa-l-Mujāhidīn (2), from the route of Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, with it.
Al-Ḥākim said: "This hadith is Sahih (Authentic) according to the conditions of the two Sheikhs, though they did not transmit it."
I say: It is not as he said (may Allah have mercy on him), for the chain of transmission is only Hasan (Good); in it is Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, concerning whom al-Dhahabī said in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (1/224): "And his hadith is in the rank of Hasan (Good)."
Likewise said Ibn Ḥajar in al-Fatḥ (2/472).
And the hadith is Sahih (Authentic) through what preceded.
And Saʿīd ibn Yasār was corroborated in it; Abū Ṣāliḥ corroborated him, from Abū Hurayra, marfūʿ with it:
It was transmitted by al-Bukhārī (2887), Ibn Mājah (4135–4136), al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (9/159), al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunna (14/261), and Ibn ʿAsākir in al-Arbaʿūn fī al-Ḥathth ʿalā al-Jihād (pp. 109–110).
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