- "Will you not pledge allegiance to the Messenger of Allāh?!" - He repeated it three times - "that you worship Allāh and do not associate anything with Him, and [perform] the five prayers - and he whispered a hidden word - [and] that you do not ask people for anything." It was narrated from him (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) by: ʿAwf ibn Mālik; and it was narrated from ʿAwf by three: 1- Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī: It was narrated by Muslim (3/97), al-Nasāʾī (1/229) - and the wording is his -, Abū Dāwūd (1642), Ibn Mājah (2867), al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Kabīr" (18/No. 67), and al-Mizzī in "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" (34/292) through the route of Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī from him with it. 2- Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī: It was narrated by Ibn Ḥibbān (3385), and al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Kabīr" (18/No. 68) through the route of Rabīʿah ibn Yazīd from him with it. I said: There is no contradiction between the two routes; the elevation and descent are known methods among the people of ḥadīth; so the fact that Abū Idrīs heard it from Abū Muslim does not contradict his hearing it directly from ʿAwf. 3- Rabīʿah ibn Laqīṭ: It was narrated by Aḥmad (6/27), and al-Ṭabarānī (18/No. 130) through the route of Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd from Ibn Lahīʿah from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb from him with it in a summarized form similarly. The narration of Qutaybah from Ibn Lahīʿah is acceptable; as I have pointed out in various places in my writings recently