Sahih Muslim 439
صحيح مسلم#439Sahihحَدَّثَنَا إِبْرَاهِيمُ بْنُ دِينَارٍ، وَمُحَمَّدُ بْنُ حَرْبٍ الْوَاسِطِيُّ، قَالاَ حَدَّثَنَا عَمْرُو بْنُ الْهَيْثَمِ أَبُو قَطَنٍ، حَدَّثَنَا شُعْبَةُ، عَنْ قَتَادَةَ، عَنْ خِلاَسٍ، عَنْ أَبِي رَافِعٍ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " لَوْ تَعْلَمُونَ - أَوْ يَعْلَمُونَ - مَا فِي الصَّفِّ الْمُقَدَّمِ لَكَانَتْ قُرْعَةً " . وَقَالَ ابْنُ حَرْبٍ " الصَّفِّ الأَوَّلِ مَا كَانَتْ إِلاَّ قُرْعَةً " .
Abu Huraira reported:The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: If you were to know, or if they were to know, what (excellence) lies in the first rows, there would have been drawing of lots (for filling them) ; and Ibn Harb said: For (occupying) the first row there would have been drawing of lots
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 439 is the standard (Abd al-Baqi) number; this narration is #984 in the MuslimGPT index.
In-book reference: 4:146