The second observation is that the ḥadīth in this particular wording, which ends with the extra phrase “wa-baʿāl” (and marital intimacy), has a weak isnād, even though al-Haythamī deemed it ḥasan. Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr 11 / 232 / 1587 through the chain of Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ḥabībah, from Dāwūd ibn al-Ḥuṣayn, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās. The majority critics declared this Ibrāhīm weak because of his poor memory; al-Bukhārī and Abū Ḥātim even said of him, “munkar al-ḥadīth” (“his ḥadīths are objectionable”), and al-Tirmidhī—despite his well-known leniency—after transmitting two reports from him, commented after each, “yuḍʿaf fī al-ḥadīth” (“he is weak in ḥadīth”).

I add: One of the clearest indications of his weakness is precisely his inclusion of the additional phrase “wa-baʿāl,” for it does not appear in the other chain whose opening wording al-Haythamī quoted only in part. Al-Ṭabarānī also narrated that alternate version in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr 11 / 110 / 203 and in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat 2 / 142 / 7198 through the route of Abū Jamīlah al-Mufaḍḍal—printed in the published edition of al-Kabīr as “al-Faḍl,” a typographical error—ibn Ṣāliḥ, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ʿAbbās: that the Prophet ﷺ dispatched Budayl ibn Waraqāʾ at Minā to announce,

“These are days of eating and drinking; do not fast them.”

This isnād, too, is weak, for al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Ṣāliḥ is likewise considered weak, as stated in al-Taqrīb. Nevertheless, the text of the report without the extra phrase is sound, since it is supported by narrations from a number of Companions.