This isnād is ḥasan: all of its transmitters are those employed by the two Shaykhs, apart from ʿAlī ibn Zayd—namely, Ibn Judʿān—who is regarded as acceptable when his reports serve as corroboration.

Al-Khaṭīb (3/360) also recorded the ḥadīth through Muḥammad ibn Hishām al-Marwazī: “Hushaym narrated it to us,” and he remarked, “According to what has been said, no one besides him related it from Hushaym.”

I reply: Aḥmad’s version contradicts that claim, for it reaches us from Suraij, from Hushaym.

Al-Haythamī stated in al-Majmaʿ (4/8–9): “Aḥmad, Abū Yaʿlā, and al-Bazzār transmitted it. In its chain is ʿAlī ibn Zayd, about whom there is some debate, though he has been declared reliable.”

I add: Al-Khaṭīb supplies two further lines of transmission for this ḥadīth.

First: He recorded it (11/228) through ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Qāsim ibn Bashār Abū Ḥafṣ al-Baghdādī, who said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar dictated to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Kūfī narrated to us; he said: Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, with the same wording.

This isnād is weak. Al-Khaṭīb gave ʿUmar a biographical entry but reported neither commendation nor criticism of him.

As for Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿUmar Abū ʿAbd Allāh, he appears to be the man listed in al-Mīzān: “Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ al-Ṭalqānī, resident of Egypt, Abū ʿAbd Allāh; al-Dāraqutnī said: ‘Weak.’”