- Mujāhid—al-Ṭabarānī relates it in al-Kabīr, and its chain is likewise good.
What further confirms its anomalous nature is that this wording does not occur in the narration of ʿAlī recorded by al-Tirmidhī, who declared that report authentic; its documentation will be cited in its proper place.
Anyone knowledgeable in this noble science knows that a single one of these five defects is enough to render the ḥadith weak—so what if all of them come together? For that reason we are truly astonished that al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar should say in Fatḥ (4/67): “Abū Yaʿlā transmitted it with a strong chain.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Ḥabīb al-Sindī noticed this endorsement in his treatise al-Ḥijāb, clung to it, and from pages 27 to 43 of the fifth edition devoted a discussion in which he attempted, through remarkably convoluted methods and awkward language, to establish the soundness of that chain. Much of it is unintelligible because of his non-native phrasing, and what can be understood is largely material he has merely quoted from others. Within it, however, are points that turn against him and invalidate the very authentication he claims, together with a striking inconsistency: he quotes al-Ḥāfiẓ as saying about Abū Isḥāq al-Sibāʿī, “He became confused toward the end of his life,” and then immediately adds:
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