Hibatu Allah reported to us; Ibn al-Mudhhib reported to us; Abu Bakr al-Qaṭīʿī reported to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad reported to us; my father told me; Ismāʿīl reported to us; Ibn Abī Najīḥ reported to us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr, from Abū al-Minhāl, from Ibn ʿAbbās:

“When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived in Madinah, the people were paying in advance for dates for one and two years—or he said: for two or three years—so he said: ‘Whoever pays in advance for dates, let him stipulate a known measure and a known weight.’”

All six of them (1) recorded the report through their own chains from Ibn Abī Najīḥ.

We were uncertain about this Ibn Kathīr—was he al-Dārī or al-Sahmī? The scholars before us differed as well. In al-Dāraqutnī’s “Men of Muslim” he mentioned only the Sahmī, whereas in “Men of al-Bukhārī” he mentioned only ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr al-Makki; both men were Meccan. Close examination shows that al-Dārī was an elderly, well-known figure, whereas the Sahmī is scarcely known except for a single hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, and that report is defective; it concerns the Prophet’s ﷺ plea for forgiveness for the people of al-Baqīʿ.

That lone report was transmitted solely by Ibn Wahb, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr ibn al-Muṭṭalib, from Muḥammad ibn Qays ibn Makhramah, from ʿĀʾishah, about his ﷺ going out at night and seeking forgiveness for them. It is one of the elevated parallel transmissions preserved in al-Ikhmīmī’s Fawāʾid.

Muslim then added immediately after it:

“Someone who had heard Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad narrated to me, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAbd Allah—a man from Quraysh—from Muḥammad ibn Qays, this same report.” (2)

Al-Dāraqutnī said: “He is ʿAbd Allah ibn Kathīr ibn al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wādaʿah.”

I say: This Muṭṭalib is the son of al-Ḥārith ibn Ṣubayrah ibn Saʿīd ibn Saʿd ibn Sahm al-Qurashī.

ʿAbd Allah had brothers—Kathīr, Jaʿfar, and Saʿīd—but none of them gained any renown.