It was also transmitted through the chain of Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd and Abū Hārūn al-ʿAbdī, from ʿAdiyy ibn Thābit, from al-Barāʾ with the same wording.

Mūsā ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥaḍramī likewise related it from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ.

This ḥadith has further been reported from Saʿd, Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbayd Allah, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah—who has several routes—Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, Ḥabashī ibn Junādah, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allah, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and Abū Hurayrah. Among the transmissions from Abū Hurayrah—indeed the strangest of them—is the route cited by the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (1):

“ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Bishrān narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us; Abū Naṣr Ḥabshūn ibn Mūsā ibn Ayyūb al-Khallāl narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Ramlī narrated to us; Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah al-Qurashī narrated to us; from Ibn Shawḏab; from Maṭar al-Warrāq; from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab; from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

‘Whoever fasts on the eighteenth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah will have the reward of fasting sixty months recorded for him. It is the Day of Ghadīr Khumm, when the Prophet ﷺ took the hand of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and said, “Am I not the mawlā of the believers?” They replied, “Yes indeed, O Messenger of Allah.” He then declared, “For whomever I am the mawlā, ʿAlī is his mawlā.” ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “Bravo, bravo, son of Abī Ṭālib; today you have become my mawlā and the mawlā of every Muslim.” Thereupon Allah—Exalted is He—revealed: “Today I have perfected for you your religion” (Al-Māʾidah 5:3).

‘Whoever fasts on the twenty-seventh of Rajab will likewise have the reward of fasting sixty months; it is the first day on which Gabriel descended with the Revelation.’”

Al-Khaṭīb said: “This ḥadith became well known through the narration of Ḥabshūn, and it was said that he alone transmitted it. It has, however, a corroborating chain from Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Sālim ibn Mihrān—known as Ibn al-Tabarī—from ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Shāmī.”

I (the author) say: “It is objectionable on several grounds. Among them is the claim that the verse, ‘Today I have perfected for you your religion,’ was revealed on that occasion. A similar report exists through Ibn Hārūn al-ʿAbdī, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, but it too is unsound. In reality, that verse was revealed on the Day of ʿArafah, as is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (2) from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, as mentioned earlier.

“The statement, ‘For whomever I am the mawlā,’ has also been related from other Companions besides those already named, yet the isnāds reaching them are weak.”

[The Ḥadith of the Bird]

Scholars have authored separate monographs on this ḥadith. It possesses numerous chains, each of which requires examination. We shall cite a few of them. Al-Tirmidhī (3) said: “Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allah ibn Mūsā narrated to us; from ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar; from al-Suddī …”