Sunan Ibn Majah 1557
سنن ابن ماجه#1557Sahihحَدَّثَنَا مَحْمُودُ بْنُ غَيْلاَنَ، حَدَّثَنَا هَاشِمُ بْنُ الْقَاسِمِ، حَدَّثَنَا مُبَارَكُ بْنُ فَضَالَةَ، حَدَّثَنِي حُمَيْدٌ الطَّوِيلُ، عَنْ أَنَسِ بْنِ مَالِكٍ، قَالَ: لَمَّا تُوُفِّيَ النَّبِيُّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ كَانَ بِالْمَدِينَةِ رَجُلٌ يَلْحَدُ وَآخَرُ يَضْرَحُ. فَقَالُوا: نَسْتَخِيرُ رَبَّنَا وَنَبْعَثُ إِلَيْهِمَا فَأَيُّهُمَا سَبَقَ تَرَكْنَاهُ . فَأُرْسِلَ إِلَيْهِمَا فَسَبَقَ صَاحِبُ اللَّحْدِ. فَلَحَدُوا لِلنَّبِيِّ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ .
It was narrated that Anas bin Malik said:“When the Prophet (ﷺ) died, there was a man in Al-Madinah who used to make a niche in the grave and another who used to dig graves without a niche. They said: ‘Let us pray Istikharah to our Lord and call for them both, and whichever of them comes first, we will let him do it.’ So they were both sent for, and the one who used to make the niche-grave came first, so they made a niche-grave for the Prophet (ﷺ).”
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave, each scholar counted once — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. When they judged only its chain of narrators (“Isnaad”), the label says “Sound chain”. Each scholar's own wording:
Our source also lists this ruling under Muhammad Fouad Abd al-Baqi, the editor of the printed edition it was taken from. It is al-Albani's ruling printed again, so it is counted once.
In-book reference: 6:125