Ahmad also recorded the report through the route of ʿAbd Allah ibn Shurayk, from ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Raqī al-Kinānī, from him.

All the men in this chain are reliable except for this Ibn al-Raqī; no one narrated from him save Ibn Shurayk, which is why Ibn Ḥajar, in al-Taqrīb, and al-Khazrajī, in al-Khilāṣah, both ruled him unknown.

Al-Haythamī, however, considered the narration ḥasan, stating:
“Ahmad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsat all transmit it, and the last two add:
They said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, you have closed all our doors except ʿAlī’s?’ He replied, ‘It was not I who closed your doors; rather, Allah closed them.’ The isnād of Ahmad is ḥasan.”

Ibn Ḥajar followed this judgement in Fatḥ al-Bārī, saying:
“Its chain is strong, and the narrators of al-Ṭabarānī’s version in al-Awsat are trustworthy.”

I remark: Ibn Ḥajar thus contradicts himself, for his declaration that the chain is “strong” conflicts with his earlier verdict that one of its transmitters is “unknown,” as noted above.

As for the route of al-Ṭabarānī and those mentioned with him, it seems to be another chain from Saʿd. Ibn Kathīr reproduced it from Abū Yaʿlā through yet another isnād that contains a narrator I do not recognize; most likely a typographical error has crept into some of the names. Allah knows best.

Among the corroborating reports is what Zayd ibn Arqam related: “Several Companions of the Messenger of Allah had doors opening into the mosque. One day he said, ‘Close these doors, all but the door of ʿAlī.’ The people spoke about this, so he stood up…”