I reply: He is, in himself, a trustworthy narrator; Ibn Maʿin, Ahmad, and others deemed him reliable, and the criticism cited does not impugn his transmissions. Moreover, al-Haythami overlooked the fact that the ḥadith is found in the Musnad through a route other than the one he mentioned, as you have seen—glorified be He who neither errs nor forgets.

The ḥadith has additional corroborating chains which I have cited and verified in al-Taʿlīqāt al-Jiyād, in the Book of Funerals, and there is no need to prolong the discussion by repeating them here.

The third report comes from Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him. Ahmad and Ibn Abī Shaybah record it in the Muṣannaf through the chain: ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd → Shaqīq → Ibn Masʿūd.

This isnād is sound (ḥasan); its transmitters are those found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, except that al-Bukhārī and Muslim narrate from ʿĀṣim only when he is coupled with another narrator. Even so, he is a reliable (ḥasan) transmitter.

Al-Haythami remarked: “Al-Ṭabarānī related it in al-Kabīr, and its chain is sound,” yet he too overlooked its presence in the Musnad.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, in many of his works—such as Minhāj al-Sunnah—attributes it to Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ; he does the same in Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaʿqīm, adding, “Its chain is good (jayyid).”

I add: I have discovered yet another route for this ḥadith, which Ahmad also records: “ʿAffān narrated to us; Qays narrated to us; al-Aʿmash narrated to us—from Ibrāhīm—from ʿUbaydah al-Salmānī—from ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd,” traced back to the Prophet with the wording: