And bite down upon it with your molar teeth. And beware of newly invented matters, for every newly invented matter is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance." (1)

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(1) A sound hadith, and this chain is good on the authority of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Sulamī. And Ḥujr is unknown, but both were followed up as we have explained in *Musnad Aḥmad* (17142). This hadith was declared sound by al-Tirmidhī and al-Bazzār, according to what Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr transmitted from them in *Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa-Faḍlih*, and by al-Ḥākim, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī, al-Harawī, al-Dhahabī, and Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī in *Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam* 2/109. Ibn Rajab said: It is a good hadith, among the sound hadiths of the people of Syria, and al-Bukhārī and Muslim did not omit it due to any rejection of it on their part.

Ibn Mājah (44) and al-Tirmidhī (2871) narrated it via the route of Thawr ibn Yazīd, and al-Tirmidhī (2870) via the route of Buḥayr ibn Saʿd, both from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr alone, with it.

Ibn Mājah (43) narrated it via the route of Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, from Ḍamrah ibn Ḥabīb, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr al-Sulamī, with it.

Ibn Mājah also narrated it (42) via the route of Yaḥyā ibn Abī al-Muṭāʿ, who said: I heard al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah. And Yaḥyā, even though he explicitly stated that he heard from al-ʿIrbāḍ, and al-Bukhārī relied upon him and affirmed it in his *Tārīkh*, the hadith scholars of Syria denied that he heard from him, as al-Mizzī mentioned in *Tahdhīb al-Kamāl*, and Ibn Rajab in *Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam* 2/110, so the chain is disconnected. Ibn Rajab said: It has been narrated from al-ʿIrbāḍ through other routes.

It has another route with Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in *al-Sunnah* (28), (29), and (59), and al-Ṭabarānī 18/(623), via the route of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, from Arṭāh ibn al-Mundhir, from al-Muhāṣir ibn Ḥabīb, from al-ʿIrbāḍ. And its chain is good, God willing.

The hadith, with these routes combined, undoubtedly rises to the level of sound.

See the complete takhrīj and discussion of it in *Musnad Aḥmad* (17142) and (17146).

Al-Khaṭṭābī said: His saying: "even if an Abyssinian slave" means obedience to whomever the ruler appoints over you, even if he is an Abyssinian slave. And it has been established from the Prophet, peace be upon him, that he said: "The rulers are from Quraysh," and the example may be given =