Saʿd were in fact authentic, then Qays amounted to nothing. What really counts are Ḥammād’s reports from Thābit, and that entire class of narrations—he means—are firmly established.
Ibn Saʿd said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Tamīmī informed me, saying: Abū Khālid al-Rāzī related to me from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, who said: “Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah once took me by the hand when I was still a boy and said, ‘You will not die before you take up preaching. I said the same thing to your uncle’—meaning Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl—‘and, sure enough, Ḥammād did not die until he had preached.’”
Abū Khālid remarked, “I asked Ḥammād, ‘Did you actually serve as a preacher?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ I say: the qāṣṣ is the exhorter.”
ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh said: I asked Yaḥyā, “Did you take what you have from Ḥammād ibn Salamah by dictation?” He answered, “Yes, all of it was through formal dictation, except for a few things I would ask him about in the marketplace, which I then memorised.”
I asked Yaḥyā, “Would he say ‘He narrated to me’ (ḥaddathanī) and ‘He narrated to us’ (ḥaddathanā)?” He answered, “Yes; he used the two expressions interchangeably, sometimes ‘ḥaddathanī’ and sometimes ‘ḥaddathanā.’”
Al-Bayhaqī said in al-Khilāfiyyāt: Among the material cited in the book al-Imām by our teacher—after quoting the ḥadīth ‘Lo, the servant has fallen asleep,’ transmitted by Ḥammād ibn Salamah—he added, “As for Ḥammād, he is one of the leading imams of the Muslims.”
Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “If you see someone disparaging him, be wary of that person, for Ḥammād was severe against the people of innovation. When he grew advanced in age, however, his memory declined; for that reason al-Bukhārī did not rely upon him. Muslim, on the other hand, exercised careful judgment: he included Ḥammād’s narrations from Thābit that he had heard before the deterioration, and from transmitters other than Thābit he inserted about twelve ḥadīths merely as supporting evidence, not as proof-texts. Prudence, therefore, dictates that one should not adduce his reports when they conflict with those of sound transmitters—and the present ḥadīth is among that category.”
Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī said: Muḥammad ibn Muṭahhir narrated to me, saying, “I asked Ahmad…"