and this is a good or authentic chain of transmission; its men are the men of the six [books] except for ʿAjlān, who is the freedman of al-Mashʿal. al-Nasāʾī said: "There is nothing wrong with him," and Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy, and in "Taqrīb": "There is no harm in him." The ḥadīth is authentic and mutawātir from Abū Hurayrah with similar wording, previously mentioned in: "When one of you comes to his servant."

"Gabriel came to the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and said: How do you consider the people of Badr among you? He said: Among the best of the Muslims. He said: And so are those who witnessed with us from the angels." It was narrated by Ibn Abī Khaythamah in "al-Tārīkh" (230): My father narrated to us, he said: Jarīr informed us from Yaḥyá ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī from Muʿādh ibn Rafāʿah ibn Rāfiʿ al-Zuraqī from his father - and his father was from the people of Badr and his grandfather from the people of ʿAqabah - he said: ... and he mentioned it. And he said: "Yaḥyá ibn Maʿīn was asked about this ḥadīth? He said: It is nothing, false." Thus he said, but there is no basis for it as we see, for the isnād is authentic and connected according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī, as he narrated it in "Ṣaḥīḥ" (3992 - Fatḥ): Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to me: Jarīr informed us with it, then he narrated it (3993) through the path of Ḥammād (who is Ibn Zayd) from Yaḥyá with it similarly. Then he continued it (3994) through the path of Yazīd: Yaḥyá informed us, he heard Muʿādh ibn Rafāʿah: that a king asked the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). So this apparently is mursal, which might explain Ibn Maʿīn's earlier statement, but the agreement of Jarīr and Ḥammād on connecting it elevates it and favors its connection, and Allāh knows best. Refer to "Fatḥ al-Bārī" (7/312) for this