As for the second ground, the report is hasan due to corroborating evidence, for it has a supporting narration transmitted by Abu Qilābah al-Jarmī in mursal form with the wording: “O ʿUthmān, Allah did not send me with monasticism”—he repeated this two or three times—“for the religion most beloved to Allah is the easy, upright way.” Ibn Saʿd recorded it in al-Ṭabaqāt, vol. 3, fasc. 1, p. 287.

I later found another corroborating narration, likewise mursal, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam; Aḥmad related it in al-Zuhd, pp. 289 and 310, with a sound chain.

After that I noticed the author had slipped into yet another unusual error regarding this ḥadīth: in the “sixth edition” (printed 1376 AH) he ascribed it to Muslim, although it is nowhere to be found in Muslim. Rather, al-Bukhārī cited it in a suspended form and supplied the complete chain in al-Adab al-Mufrad. I have traced and authenticated it in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 881.