Abdullāh ibn Uthmān ibn Khuthaym, from Saīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbās, who related that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came upon a group of merchants and addressed them; he then narrated a similar version of the hadith.

Al-Tabarānī transmitted it in al-Mujam al-Kabīr (3/164). However, this al-Hārith is weak. Abū Hātim said, “He is not strong,” and al-Dāraqutnī said, “Weak.” This is cited in al-Dhahabī’s al-Mīzān, where he listed two of his hadiths, this being one of them, and then stated: “Ibn Hibbān said: ‘This has no sound basis to which it can be traced.’”

I say: Further confirmation of his weakness is that a group of trustworthy narrators contradicted him regarding its chain from Ibn Khuthaym. They narrated it from him, from Ismāīl ibn Ubayd ibn Rifāah, from his father, from his grandfather, as stated above.

It might be said that although the hadith is weak, it is corroborated by the hadith of Abd al-Rahmān ibn Shibl al-Ansārī, in which the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Merchants are indeed evildoers.” A man asked, “O Prophet of Allah, has Allah not made trade lawful?” He replied, “They speak and lie, and they swear oaths and incur sin.”

Ahmad transmitted it (3/444), and its chain is authentic.

I say: Yes, it corroborates the first part of the hadith. The remainder, however, differs from it, as is evident. Allah knows best.

It is also true that al-Tabrīzī mentioned in al-Mishkāt (2800), and subsequently al-Suyūtī in al-Jāmi al-Kabīr (3/72), that al-Bayhaqī transmitted it in Shuab al-Īmān as a hadith of al-Barā. Neither of them, however, said anything about its chain, and I have not located it myself in order to examine it. Its chain may well be the first chain, but one of the narrators somehow erred in it and attributed it to al-Barā, just as happened with al-Hārith ibn Ubayd in the first chain. Allah knows best.