Ibn Ḥibbān (1) put forward the opposite contention and said (2), “A narration in which two transmitters relate from two transmitters all the way back simply does not exist (3) at all” (4).
I say: If what he intends is that a chain consisting of only two narrators from only two narrators (5) (6) is altogether non-existent (7), that point can be conceded.
However, the pattern of the ʿazīz report that we have defined is indeed found: it is never transmitted by fewer than two narrators from fewer than two.
An illustration is the hadith recorded by the Two Shaykhs on the authority of Anas (8), and by al-Bukhārī on the authority of Abū Hurayrah (9), in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said (10): “None of you truly believes until I am dearer to him than his father and his child …” — and so on.
It was transmitted (11) from Anas by Qatādah and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuḥayb (12),
(1) He is the eminent imam, precise ḥadīth scholar and memorizer, the Shaykh of Khurasan, Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad b. Ḥibbān b. Aḥmad b. Ḥibbān al-Tamīmī al-Dārimī al-Bustī, author of the celebrated works Rawdat al-ʿUqalāʾ, al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ, al-Anwāʿ wa-al-Taqāsīm, and others; he died in 354 AH. See Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 12:183 and Tabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ by al-Suyūṭī 1:375.
(2) The words “fa-qāla” are missing from manuscript D.
(3) Manuscripts B, H, Z, and Ṭ read “yujad”; the word is written without diacritical dots in L and M.
(4) See Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān 1:156. Al-Ḥāzimī remarks in Shurūṭ al-Aʾimmah al-Khamsah, p. 134: “Whoever surveys the sources will know that what Ibn Ḥibbān stated is nearer to the truth.”
(5) Manuscript H reads “annahu,” while the particle “anna” is absent from A and B.
(6) The word “faqaṭ” is not found in H.
(7) Manuscripts A, B, J, H, W, and Ṭ read “yujad”; L and M write the word without diacritical dots.
(8) Al-Bukhārī, no. 15; Muslim, no. 44.
(9) Al-Bukhārī, no. 14.
(10) The word “qāla” is missing in manuscript A.
(11) In L the word “rawāhu” appears without the conjunction wāw.
(12) Manuscript H vocalizes the name as “Ṣuhayba” (with fatḥa on the bāʾ); the adopted reading follows Z and K.