Ahmad 8018

Its isnad is sahih, in fact it has two isnads, for as we said regarding the previous one, Imam Ahmad narrated it from Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi, and Abdullah bin Ahmad narrated it from Muhammad bin Minhal, both of them from Abdul-Wahid bin Ziyad. As for Muhammad bin Minhal, his reliability was established earlier at 965, and I should add here that Ibn Abu Hatim gave his biography in 4/1/92.This hadith, with this isnad as it stands, is confirmed in all three sources, the printed edition and the two manuscripts, following hadith 8003. This makes it apparent that his statement here, "similar to it," meaning similar to the hadith of the seventy thousand entering paradise, and his statement, "Ukkasha beat you to it," is definitely an error, since Asim bin Kulayb and his father did not narrate that hadith, as far as we know, or at least Imam Ahmad did not narrate it in the Musnad from their report. Had it existed, Hafiz bin Kathir would have mentioned it in Jamiul-Masanid among the hadiths of Kulayb bin Shihab from Abu Hurairah, but he did not do so.Therefore, having become certain of this error in the ordering of the hadiths at this point, I moved the narration found here, the one containing the report of Abdullah bin Ahmad from Muhammad bin Minhal, to come after the hadith about the sermon that does not contain the testimony, the one narrated by Imam Ahmad from Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi. So this one became numbered 8005, and that one became numbered 8004, so that this would correspond to that.In fact, what I am nearly inclined to conclude is that the statement at the beginning of these two isnads for hadith 8005, "Abdul-Rahman narrated to us, Abdul-Wahid narrated to us," meaning Ibn Ziyad, is an error by the early copyists in some copies of the Musnad, and that the correct reading omits it, so that the beginning of this hadith would be the statement of Abdullah bin Ahmad, "Muhammad bin Minhal narrated to me..." and so on. This is supported by the fact that Hafiz bin Kathir recorded both isnads correctly in Jamiul-Masanid, 7:324, as follows, "Abdul-Rahman narrated to us. Abdul-Wahid narrated to us, meaning Ibn Ziyad..." to the end of the hadith which we have numbered here 8004, then he said after it, "Abdullah said, and Muhammad bin Minhal narrated to me..." to the end of the second isnad of the one we have numbered 8005. This is the correct and proper order.However, I have not removed the first isnad from it, since there is no harm in keeping it after this explanation has been given, even though it repeats the isnad that came before it at 8004.