I have left behind over you that which if you hold fast to...

I have left behind over you that which if you hold fast to it you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and my offspring, my .” Al-Tirmidhi (2/308) and al-Tabarani (2680) recorded it from Zayd b. al-Hasan al-Anmati from Ja’far from his father from Jabir b. ‘Abd Allah, who said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, during his Hajj on the Day of ‘Arafat while he was on his camel, al-Qaswa, delivering a sermon, and I heard him saying” Then he (al-Tirmidhi) quoted it (i.e.

the hadith), and said: “And this hadith is hasan gharib (i.e. has a hasan chain) from this route. As for Zayd b. al-Hasan, Sa’id b. Sulayman and others from the people of knowledge have narrated from him.” I (al-Albani) say: Abu Hatim said: “Munkar al-hadith” and Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al-Thiqat (The Trustworthy Narrators). Al-Hafiz said: “Dha’if”. I (al-Albani) say: But the hadith is sahih, for – verily - it has a witness (shahid) in the hadith of Zayd b.

Arqam.[^5] These words of al-Albani explain his methodology in grading the hadith as sahih. Unlike al-Tirmidhi, he considers the chain of the report to be dha’if (weak), due to Zayd b. al-Hasan al-Anmati. However, he believes that the Messenger did truly utter those words – as evidenced by the report of Zayd b. Arqam – at a location other than ‘Arafat. The claim that the Prophet delivered the hadith at ‘Arafat, in addition to other places, comes only through the sanad of al-Anmati.

As such, if his chain is dha’if, then it would be impossible to prove that those words were ever uttered at ‘Arafat – even though there is no doubt that he said them at another place. Meanwhile, Imam al-Tirmidhi believed that the Messenger of Allah declared the hadith at ‘Arafat, and later at Ghadir Khumm[^6].

‘Allamah al-Albani explains how: أقول: وجه ذلك أن جمع الترمذي بين لفظتي " غريب " و" حسن " إنما يعني في اصطلاحه أنه حسن لذاته I say: The reason for that is whenever al-Tirmidhi says “hasan gharib”, he only means in his terminologies that its chain is independently hasan.[^7] So, basically, al-Tirmidhi considers al-Anmati to be reliable, and his sanad to be hasan.

We could then conclude the following from the research up to this level: Al-Tirmidhi considers the chain of al-Anmati to be independently hasan while al-Albani grades the same sanad as dha’if. It is only the sanad of al-Anmati which establishes that the hadith was pronounced at ‘Arafat too, in addition to Ghadir Khumm.