and there is another chain from him with the wording: "Shall I not inform you of the best of people in status?" which has been previously mentioned. Then I saw it in "al-Mustadrak" (4/464) through the route of Yaḥyá ibn Jaʿfar who narrated to us from ʿAbd al-Razzāq with it, and he said: also: authentic according to their criteria, and al-Dhahabī agreed with him. and it is as they said, for al-Dabarī was corroborated in it. Then I saw it in "al-Fitan" by Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī (folio 153/1) through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak from Maʿmar with it. Thus, the ḥadīth is certainly authentic, and all praise is due to Allāh. It has a supporting narration from the ḥadīth of Umm Mālik al-Bahaziyyah. It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī and he graded it as good, "refer to al-Mishkāt" (5400).

"The best of people are my generation, then those who follow them, then those who follow them, then there will come a people who will become fat: they love fatness and they will testify before being asked to do so." It was recorded by al-Tirmidhī (2/35, 49), Ibn Ḥibbān (2285), al-Ḥākim (3/471), and Aḥmad (4/426) from Wakīʿ who narrated to us from al-Aʿmash who narrated to us from Hilāl ibn Yasāf from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn as a marfūʿ ḥadīth. And this is an authentic chain according to Muslim's criteria, and al-Ḥākim's statement: "according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs" is an error, even though al-Dhahabī agreed with him, because Hilāl was only narrated by al-Bukhārī as a suspended narration. Al-Tirmidhī also recorded it through the route of Muḥammad ibn al-Fuḍayl from al-Aʿmash from ʿAlī ibn Mudrak from Hilāl ibn Yasāf with it. So ʿAlī ibn Mudrak was inserted between al-Aʿmash and Hilāl. Al-Tirmidhī said: Thus Muḥammad ibn al-Fuḍayl narrated this ḥadīth from al-Aʿmash from ʿAlī ibn Mudrak from Hilāl ibn Yasāf, and more than one of the ḥadīth scholars narrated this ḥadīth from al-Aʿmash from Hilāl ibn Yasāf without mentioning ʿAlī ibn Mudrak in it. Then he presented the mentioned chain and said: