Sahih Muslim 2286
صحيح مسلم#2286Sahihحَدَّثَنَا عَمْرُو بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ النَّاقِدُ، حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ بْنُ عُيَيْنَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي الزِّنَادِ، عَنِ الأَعْرَجِ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " مَثَلِي وَمَثَلُ الأَنْبِيَاءِ كَمَثَلِ رَجُلٍ بَنَى بُنْيَانًا فَأَحْسَنَهُ وَأَجْمَلَهُ فَجَعَلَ النَّاسُ يُطِيفُونَ بِهِ يَقُولُونَ مَا رَأَيْنَا بُنْيَانًا أَحْسَنَ مِنْ هَذَا إِلاَّ هَذِهِ اللَّبِنَةَ . فَكُنْتُ أَنَا تِلْكَ اللَّبِنَةَ " .
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:The similitude of mine and that of the Apostles (before me) is that of a person who constructed a building and he built it fine and well and the people went round it saying: Never have we seen a building more imposing than this. but for one brick, and I am that brick (with which you give the finishing touch to the building)
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:
Every narration in Sahih Muslim is accepted as Sahih (authentic) by the established status of the book.
Sahih Muslim 2286 is the standard (Abd al-Baqi) number; this narration is #5959 in the MuslimGPT index.
In-book reference: 43:22