it is from his leniency for which he is known, for each of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Samʿī, Dalham ibn al-Aswad, and his father are known only by this isnād, and al-Dhahabī explicitly stated in "al-Mīzān" in the biography of Dalham that he is not known. He also indicated that the others are the same, because they have only one narrator. Indeed, al-Ḥāfiẓ transmitted in the biography of al-Aswad from al-Dhahabī that he said about him: "His place is honesty." I do not know the basis for this, and al-Ḥāfiẓ said about him and each of the others: "Acceptable." All three were uniquely authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān (4/32, 6/291, and 7/71), which is the basis for al-Haythamī's previous statement! For this reason, I had weakened this isnād in the ḥadīth of the vision referred to in the first path, but I improved its text due to the combination of the two paths as you see it presented in "Ẓilāl al-Jannah" (459). Similarly, I had weakened the same isnād in this ḥadīth in "al-Ẓilāl" as well (554), but I had not come across this second path, so I left the ḥadīth in the weakness that its isnād necessitates because there is no way for us to know the authentic from the weak ḥadīth except by the isnād. Therefore, it was said by some of the predecessors: "The isnād is part of the religion; if it were not for the isnād, anyone could say whatever they wished." When Allāh, the Exalted, facilitated for me to come across this path, I hastened to strengthen the ḥadīth like its predecessor, so I presented it here. All praise is due to Allāh for His guidance. I found a third path for it, rather a witness, but it is not something to rejoice over. It is narrated by Salm ibn Sālim al-Balkhī: Ḥaddathanā Khārijah ibn Muṣʿab from Zayd ibn Aslam from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār from ʿĀʾishah, the Mother of the Believers, as marfūʿ with the wording: "Indeed, Allāh laughs at the despair and hopelessness of His servants and the nearness of His mercy to them."