then it was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī (2909) through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ: he narrated to me from al-Layth: he narrated to me from ʿUqayl [from] Ibn Shihāb with it. And al-Haythamī said (8/5): "It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī with two isnāds, and the men of one of them are the men of the authentic [collections]." It seems he means the first, and the second is likewise according to me, except that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ has some weakness in his memory, but he is among those whose narrations are used as supporting evidence, thus the ḥadīth gains strength upon strength with him. And know that the ḥadīths of Ibn Ṣayyād and the Prophet's (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) questioning him about the "smoke" and his inability to answer are numerous, and some of them are in the "Ṣaḥīḥ" and the "Sunan". Refer to: "al-Mishkāt" (5494), and "Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd" (al-Malāḥim), and this is not among them. I only included it here for two reasons: the first is because it contains an addition to them from his (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) questioning his Companions about what Ibn Ṣayyād said, and his (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) response to them by saying: "You have differed..." The second is that I wanted to remind those heedless ones who attribute to the religion what is not from it, saying: The Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: "The difference of my ummah is a mercy" or: "The difference of my Companions is a mercy for you", and other such sayings whose fabrication I have clarified in its place. For this reason, they acknowledge the severe differences between the schools of thought and take it as religion, contrary to the Book and the sunnah as the scholars—may Allāh have mercy on them—have explained. Some of them go to extremes and claim that each of those contradictory opinions has evidence from the sunnah; like the issue of blood, for example, they imagine that the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) was asked about it once and answered that it nullifies ablution, and was asked another time and answered that it does not nullify! And similar to that are the imaginations that have no basis in the sunnah, and on this occasion, they recite the saying of their (Būṣīrī) in praise of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam): "And all of them seek from the Messenger of Allāh..."