Ahmad 7209

Its isnad is sahih. Muslim narrated it, 1:86, through Muhammad bin Jafar, from Shubah, from Ala. Muslim also narrated it, as did Tirmidhi, 1:55–56, both through Ismail bin Jafar, from Ala, with this same isnad. Tirmidhi also narrated it through Darawardi, from Ala. Malik narrated it in Muwatta, p. 161, from Ala, with the same wording. Muslim and Nasai, 1:34, narrated it through Malik. Tirmidhi said, the hadith of Abu Hurairah is a hasan sahih hadith.Ala bin Abdul-Rahman is Ibn Yaqub Juhani, and he is considered reliable among the scholars of hadith. In all of their narrations there is an addition at the end, "that is the guarding of the frontier," said once, twice, or three times. Ibn Majah, 1:85, narrated something similar in meaning, through Walid bin Rabah, from Abu Hurairah, and Munziri mentioned both narrations in Targheeb wa Tarheeb, 1:97–128.Al-khuta, with the khaa vowelled with damma, is the plural of khutwah (step). Ibn Athir said, "Al-khutwah, with damma, means the distance between the two feet, while with fatha it refers to a single instance of it. The plural of khutwah in the sense of many is khuta, and in the sense of few is khutawat," with the taa vowelled with sukun, damma, or fatha.