Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Kathīr narrates from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, who said: “I visited Anas ibn Mālik at the time of ʿAṣr on a day when people were uncertain (about the beginning of the month). I had come only to greet him, but he called for food and ate. I asked, ‘Is what you have just done a sunnah?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’

Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam’s version in this form is corroborated by Khālid ibn Nizzār. Al-Ṭabarānī likewise reports it in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat: ‘Al-Miqdām—meaning Ibn Dāwūd—told us; Khālid ibn Nizzār told us; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar told us…’ Because the transmission fluctuates, however, the ḥadith cannot be deemed sound.

We next searched to see whether anyone had supported ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar or Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar in reporting this narration from Zayd ibn Aslam, so that one of the two versions might thereby gain strength. We discovered that ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Darāwardī—one of the authorities whose reports appear in the Ṣaḥīḥ—has transmitted it from Zayd ibn Aslam in the very opposite wording of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar’s rendition. Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī also narrated it, saying: ‘ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and Ibrāhīm ibn…’