Azami 705

Bukhari reported it in the chapters on the hadiths of the prophets (3449), and Muslim in the book of faith (155:244), both from the hadith of Yunus, from Ibn Shihab, from Nafi the freed slave of Abu Qatada Ansari, who said, "Abu Hurairah said..." (then he related the hadith), and their wording is the same. The second narration is found in Bayhaqi's Al-Asma wal-Sifat (2/166) also through this route, and he attributed it to the two sheikhs, meaning the substance of the hadith, not its exact wording. The mention of the sky is not found in the Sahihayn, but the word "descend" implies it, and for this reason Bayhaqi said, "He only meant his descent from the sky after having been raised to it."Muslim also reported it through Walid bin Muslim, who said, "Ibn Abu Dhib narrated to us, from Ibn Shihab," with his chain of transmission, and in it, "How will you be when the son of Maryam descends among you and leads you as one of your own?" I said to Ibn Abu Dhib, "Uzai narrated to us from Zuhri, from Nafi, from Abu Hurairah, 'and your imam is one of you.'" Ibn Abu Dhib said, "Do you know what 'he leads you as one of your own' means?" I said, "Tell me." He said, "He leads you by the Book of Allah and the sunnah of your Prophetﷺ."What appears to be the case is that the narration agreed upon by the two sheikhs is the stronger one, namely his saying, "Your imam is one of you," since the other narrations support it. For this reason, Ibn Hibban interpreted what came in another narration, "he will lead them in prayer (fa-yaummuhum)," to mean that he commands them regarding the leadership of prayer, since the Arabs attribute the action to the one who commands it just as they attribute it to the one who performs it. Sahih Ibn Hibban (15/224).