and in addition: I would have liked him to list among the sound hadiths the narration he numbers 7—found in my treatise on p. 51 as the second hadith—for although he deems its isnad and that of its corroborating report (his no. 6) weak, the weakness is not serious. Both chains fall under the well-established rule that multiple weak isnads reinforce one another, a rule he himself mentions in the introduction to his book (p. 17). Indeed, at the end of his analysis he writes: “I had earlier judged this hadith hasan—that is, the report of Shabib from Anas—before I re-examined its status, having been misled by the words of some scholars.” I say: at the very least he ought to grade it hasan on account of the corroboration, if not declare it sahih; this is incumbent after he cited a trustworthy supporter from Anas that Bukhari used as evidence. Although the narrator in question was accused of tadlis (hidden transmission) by Ibn Hibban, al-Hafiz [Ibn Hajar] dismissed the charge, and several hadith critics judged the report strong, as will be shown there. Moreover, the author himself includes it among his sahih narrations on p. 50: 6. “He forbade earning a livelihood from the zammara.” This comes through the route of Abu Ubayda in Gharib al-Hadith, yet the author overlooked the continuation in which Hajjaj, one of the transmitters, says: “The zammara is an adulterous woman.” I say: that clarification prevents classifying the report with the hadiths on singing and musical instruments, even though linguistically the word zammara could bear that sense, for it is the feminine of zammar, “a reed-flute player.” I do observe a close connection between fornication and music—hence the saying, “song is the incantation of adultery”—but the link is not inevitable; Allah knows best. The hadith appears in al-Silsilah al-Sahihah, no. 3275. 1 i.e., anyone seeking a favor, as stated in al-Ismaʿili’s version in his Mustakhraj.