al-Musayyib, who said: “Whoever introduces a horse … .” Thus Mālik counted it as Saʿīd’s own statement.

The same wording was transmitted by the foremost, reliable pupils of al-Zuhrī—Maʿmar ibn Rāshid, ʿUqayl ibn Khālid, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, al-Layth ibn Saʿd, and Yūnus ibn Yazīd al-Aylī. All these eminent disciples of al-Zuhrī related it from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib as his personal utterance.

Among those who deemed the report defective were Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām (1), and Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhīd (2). The latter said: “This hadith is unique to Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn among Ibn Shihāb’s students,” and then he reinforced the critique with Abū Dāwūd’s words.

Some hadith masters observed: “It is highly unlikely (3) that al-Zuhrī should have possessed a narration from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah, raised to the Prophet, yet not a single one of his close, constant pupils—those specially attached to him, who memorised his traditions with precision and upon whom his narrations revolve—would transmit it. All of them invariably (6) report it only as Saʿīd’s own statement, even though their zeal