a man among the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). This is correct, for the man was Mu‘ādh. However, they did not mention the intermediary between them, Mālik ibn Yukhāmir, who was one of Mu‘ādh’s foremost students and closest associates.

The other narrator related it from Ibn ‘Ā’ish with a disconnected chain; his mistake, however, was to use wording indicating direct hearing. This is how the people of Syria transmitted this hadith, and they were more familiar with it, since it originated among them. Abū Qilāba, who had come to Syria, learned it from this teacher, Khālid ibn al-Lajlāj. However, the name Ibn ‘Ā’ish was misread as Ibn ‘Abbās. He then related it to the people of Basra, sometimes giving a chain through him and sometimes omitting a link, without going beyond that. For Khālid ibn al-Lajlāj did not give its chain in full: sometimes he related it from Ibn ‘Ayyāsh, from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and at other times from him, from a man among the Companions of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). But when Zayd ibn Sallām related it from Ibn ‘Ā’ish, he provided a complete, connected chain, since he had it in writing. Thus these versions corroborate one another, for it was transmitted from each