Moreover, al-Tirmidhī’s remark, “its like,” does not rule out the possibility that the two narrations share some of the same wording. Once it has been confirmed—through the testimony of the two aforementioned trustworthy transmitters—that Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar’s version preserves the affirmative wording, the nearer conclusion is that this is what al-Bukhārī meant, not the weak report of Ibn Minā. For the basic presumption regarding the narrations of reliable transmitters is agreement, not divergence, unless there is evidence to the contrary, and here no such evidence exists.

Thus it is established that al-Bukhārī’s narration is identical to that of the two trustworthy narrators before him; that, and nothing else, is what is intended.

Fourth: Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-ʿAllāf, whom al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar and others label ṣadūq (truthful).

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded his ḥadīth in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat (1/98/2 when collated with al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr). Although he diverged from his predecessors in part of the report, as will be shown later, he nevertheless concurred with them on the correct transmission of the remainder, and this concurrence serves as evidence.