“…the one who affirms is to be preferred over the one who denies.”

So how can the narration of this hesitant transmitter be used to undermine the decisive version, when he did not in fact negate the report at all? On the contrary, he affirmed it—albeit without certainty. In reality, therefore, his wording corroborates and reinforces the affirmative transmission; how, then, can it be cited as a defect against it?

Second: A narration transmitted by someone who is unsure about its affirmation is invalid to begin with. It may not be adduced as proof, let alone set against what the reliable, meticulous transmitters have related from Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar with unequivocal affirmation. This is because the doubtful version is singularly reported from Muḥammad by ʿĪsā ibn Mīnā, and he is weak. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Mughnī: “He is an authority in Qurʾānic recitation, not in ḥadith. Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ was asked about him, whereupon he laughed and said, ‘They write from anyone.’”1

Third: Moreover, this same ʿĪsā is also on record as narrating the ḥadith with decisive affirmation, exactly as the trustworthy transmitters did; al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī included his version in al-Aḥādīth al-Mukhtāra.