Sunan Abi Dawud 2637
سنن أبي داود#2637SahihNarrated Ka'b ibn Malik: When the Prophet (ﷺ) intended to go on an expedition, he always pretended to be going somewhere else, and he would say: War is deception. Abu Dawud said: Only Ma'mar has transmitted this tradition. By this he refers to his statement "War is deception" through this chain of narrators. He narrated it from the tradition of 'Amr b. Dinar from Jabir, and from the tradition of Ma'mar from Hammam b. Munabbih on the authority of Abu Hurairah
Scholarly Authentication
We show the most cautious grade (weakest-wins) as the overall label. Individual scholars graded it as follows:
Al-AlbaniSahih
Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul HamidSahih
Zubair Ali ZaiSahih
In-book reference: 15:161