then he returned to the narration of ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, he said: Hammām narrated to us, Qatādah narrated it with the exception that he said: "Whoever memorizes ten verses from Sūrah al-Kahf." I said: And the meaning of this—Allāh knows best—is that ʿAbd al-Ṣamad and ʿAffān differed regarding Hammām in this part of the ḥadīth. ʿAbd al-Ṣamad said: "From Sūrah al-Kahf" without mentioning "the beginning," while ʿAffān said: "From the beginning of Sūrah al-Kahf," as the group said from Qatādah. There is no doubt that this is correct because the group is more reliable, especially since they have an addition, and this is confirmed by the fact that ʿAffān has been followed. Imām Aḥmad said (5/196): Yazīd narrated to us, Hammām ibn Yaḥyá narrated to us from Qatādah with it. Abū Dāwūd said in "his Sunan" (4323): Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar narrated to us, Hammām narrated to us, Qatādah narrated it. And he said: "And likewise Hishām al-Dastawāʾī said from Qatādah, except that he said: 'Whoever memorizes from the endings of Sūrah al-Kahf.'" And Shuʿbah said from Qatādah: "From the end of al-Kahf." I said: The narration of Hishām was produced by Muslim (2/199): Muḥammad ibn al-Muthanná narrated to us, Muʿādh ibn Hishām narrated to us, my father narrated to me, and he mentioned it like the narration of the group. So I do not know whether Abū Dāwūd was mistaken in what he attributed to Hishām or if this was a difference among the narrators similar to the previous disagreement regarding Hammām. This is more likely. As for the narration of Shuʿbah, it is as Abū Dāwūd mentioned. Aḥmad connected it (6/446) and al-Dānī in "al-Fitan" (132/2) and Muslim, and he said after it: "And Hammām said: 'From the beginning of al-Kahf' as Hishām said." This indicates the preference of their narration over that of Shuʿbah, and it is so if they were alone