Ibn Jurayj likewise narrates it, but states: “from one of Banū Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, from Kaʿb.” Aḥmad records this version.

Fourth: Ibn Abī Dhiʾb transmits it from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from a man of Banū Sālim, from his father, from his grandfather, from Kaʿb. Al-Ṭayālisī and Aḥmad both include this route.

Such wide divergence led al-Ḥāfiẓ to remark: “Abū Dāwūd produced it, and Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn Ḥibbān pronounced it sound, yet its isnād contains variations that caused some critics to weaken it.”

I add: al-Bayhaqī also voiced misgivings about it.

In my view, the first path is the correct one, because two trustworthy narrators—Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah and Ibn ʿAjlān—agree upon it. True, we have seen discrepancies in what is reported through Ibn ʿAjlān as well, but we cannot tell whether the confusion originates with him or with his teacher Saʿīd; the latter seems more likely. Allah knows best.

Moreover, the ḥadīth has an independent foundation in the narration of Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah through two additional chains that are free of this variation:

First: Dawūd ibn Qays relates from Saʿd ibn Isḥāq ibn Fulān ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah that Abū Thamāmah the tailor told him that Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah told him—and he cited it as a marfūʿ report with similar wording.