Al-Ḥāfiẓ says in Fatḥ al-Bārī:
“It is highly unlikely that both a definitive wording—namely his saying ‘kharīfan (autumns)’—and a statement of doubt should come from the same narrator in a single circumstance.”

Perhaps the author’s only basis for grading the report authentic is the remark of al-Mundhirī and al-Haythamī: “Al-Bazzār transmitted it, and the men in its chain are those of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.”

Yet this provides him absolutely no support, as we have pointed out time and again and discussed at length in the Introduction.

He then says: “Ibn Ḥibbān and others held that the prohibition mentioned in the ḥadīth applies only when a man is praying toward a sutrah (prayer-barrier); if he is not praying toward a sutrah, passing in front of him is not forbidden. Abū Ḥātim—meaning Ibn Ḥibbān—cites as evidence what he narrates in his Ṣaḥīḥ from al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadāʿah: ‘I saw the Prophet, when he finished his circumambulation, pray two rakʿahs at the edge of the area for ṭawāf, and there was no one between him and the people circumambulating …’”

I reply: That report is weak, because its transmitter is Kathīr ibn Kathīr ibn al-Muṭṭalib, and the isnād is inconsistent. Ibn ʿUyaynah relates it as: from him, from one of his family members, who heard it from his grandfather al-Muṭṭalib; whereas Ibn Jurayj says: Kathīr ibn Kathīr told me, from his father, from his grandfather.

Sufyān recounts: “I went to Kathīr and asked him, ‘This ḥadīth you narrate from your father?’ He replied, ‘I did not hear it from my father; a member of my household related it to me from my grandfather al-Muṭṭalib.’”

Abū Dāwūd and al-Bayhaqī recorded the report, and al-Bayhaqī commented: “It is also said that Ibn Jurayj narrated from Kathīr, from his father, who said: ‘The notable men of the Banū al-Muṭṭalib related it to me from al-Muṭṭalib.’ The version of Ibn ʿUyaynah is more reliable.”

I add: In the end, the chain goes back to an unnamed member of Kathīr’s household; since he is not identified, he remains unknown (majhūl).