encourages him to do good and urges him to it, and an advisor who encourages him to do evil and urges him to it. The one protected is the one whom Allāh protects." It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (4/255/401), al-Nasāʾī, al-Ṭaḥāwī (3/22), and Aḥmad (3/39 and 88). A group followed him in this, recorded by al-Bukhārī in a suspended form and by al-Ṭaḥāwī in a connected form, all from al-Zuhrī. It appears to me from the agreement of both groups—who are all trustworthy—that Abū Salamah had two teachers in this matter, namely Abū Hurayrah and Abū Saʿīd. He would sometimes narrate it from one and sometimes from the other, and al-Zuhrī received it from him, then each of the two teachers received it from one of the two ways, which is the opinion inclined to by the ḥāfiẓ in "al-Fatḥ" (13/166). The first version is strengthened by the follow-up of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr to al-Zuhrī on it. And Allāh knows best. He has a third teacher, for ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Jaʿfar said: Ṣafwān narrated to me from Abū Salamah from Abū Ayyūb who said: I heard the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) say: and he mentioned something similar. Al-Bukhārī recorded it in a suspended form, and al-Nasāʾī and al-Ṭaḥāwī also connected it—though there is confusion in its isnād—and al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr" (3895).

- "If Allāh had willed that He not be disobeyed, He would not have created Iblīs." It was narrated by al-Lālakāʾī in "al-Sunnah" (1/141) and al-Bayhaqī in "al-Asmāʾ" (157) from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Salām from Zayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb from his father from his grandfather, who said the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said to Abū Bakr: "O Abū Bakr, if..." I said: And this isnād is unknown, as the ḥāfiẓ said in "al-Lisān":