He transmitted the report and construed it according to what he thought it meant. The report itself is sound and acceptable, whereas his personal understanding is not safeguarded from error; it remains confined to him, is no proof for anyone else, and does not necessitate rejecting the ḥadīth he narrated. The same applies to the statement of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr (1) —were its chain to him authentic, and Allah knows best.

The narration of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn (may Allah be pleased with him)

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: “Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar and Ḥajjāj related to us; both said: Shuʿbah related to us, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl. I heard Muṭarrif (3) say: ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn said to me, ‘I shall narrate to you a ḥadīth—may Allah benefit you by it: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ combined Ḥajj and ʿUmrah (4). He never forbade it until he died, and no Qur’anic revelation was sent down to prohibit it. He used to greet me with salām, but when I had myself cauterized he refrained from greeting me; when I abandoned the cauterization he greeted me again.’ ”

Muslim (5) also transmitted it through Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā and Muḥammad ibn Bashshār (6), from Ghundar, and through ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Maʿadh, from his father.

Al-Nasāʾī (7) recorded it via Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, from Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith—the three of them from Shuʿbah, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, from Muṭarrif, from ʿImrān.

Muslim (8) likewise reported it through Shuʿbah and Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from Muṭarrif ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shakhkhīr, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ combined Ḥajj and ʿUmrah …”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraquṭnī said: “The ḥadīth of Shuʿbah, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, from Muṭarrif is ṣaḥīḥ. As for his ḥadīth from Qatādah, from Muṭarrif, it is transmitted from Shuʿbah only by Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd. Ghundar and others have narrated it from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah.”