(1) The report is in fact sound (ḥasan) and unobjectionable. Ibn Wahb (no. 106) transmitted it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī al-Zinād, from his father, as a mursal narration. Al-Bukhārī cited it in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr 1/155 with the chain: Ibn Abī al-Zinād → his father → al-Aʿraj → Abū Hurayra. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī reproduced it in his Tārīkh 2/307 through ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad → Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar b. ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān → Abū al-Zinād → al-Aʿraj → Abū Hurayra, and again via Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī, who said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Salām narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad related it,” with the same isnād. Ibn ʿAdī quoted it in al-Kāmil 326 (second folio) through Yaḥyā b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Bukayr → al-Mughīra b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān → Abū al-Zinād → al-Aʿraj → Abū Hurayra. Al-Bukhārī also recorded it (10/132–133) on the authority of ʿAffān → Sulaym b. Ḥubbān → Saʿīd b. Minā → Abū Hurayra as a marfūʿ report with the wording: “firr mina-l-majdhūm kamā tafirr mina-l-asad” (“flee from the leper just as you flee from a lion”). Ibn Khuzayma, in his Kitāb al-Tawakkul, produced a corroborating narration from ʿĀʾisha: “wa-idha raʾayta-l-majdhūm fa-firr min-hu kamā tafirr mina-l-asad” (“when you see a leper, keep away from him as you would flee from a lion”). Muslim (2231) narrated from ʿAmr b. al-Sharīd al-Thaqafī, from his father, that among the delegation of Thaqīf was a man afflicted with leprosy, so the Prophet ﷺ sent word to him: “We have already accepted your pledge; return.” (*) Ibn Maʿīn, Tārīkh 2/305; Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt 7/32; Khalīfa, Ṭabaqāt 275; Khalīfa b. Khayyāṭ, Tārīkh 248; al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr 5/315; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿārif 220; al-ʿUqaylī, al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, fols. 234–235; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl 5/49; Ibn Ḥibbān, Kitāb al-Majrūḥīn 2/56; Ibn ʿAdī, al-Kāmil 3/230/1; Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist 1/225; al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād 10/228; al-Dhahabī, Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ 1/247–248; al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl 2/111; al-Dhahabī, al-ʿIbar 1/265; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 2/210/1; Ibn al-Jazarī, Ghāyat al-Nihāya 1/372; Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 6/170; al-Dhahabī, Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ 106; Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī, Khulāṣat Tadhhīb al-Kamāl 194; Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt al-Dhahab 1/284.