, who graded its chain of transmission authentic.) p. 139

Weak. Ibn Hibbān (1559), al-Hākim (4/91), al-Tayālisī, no. 2523, and Ahmad (2/352, 521) transmitted it by way of Abbād ibn Abī Alī, from Abū Hāzim—Ibn Hibbān added: the freedman of Abū Rahm al-Ghifārī—from Abū Hurayra, with this narration. Al-Hākim declared, “Its chain of transmission is authentic”! Al-Dhahabī concurred with him! This is one of his astonishing judgments, for he listed this Abbād in al-Mīzān on account of this hadith and said: “This is a denounced hadith. Al-Bukhārī cited a report from him in suspended form, and Hammād ibn Zayd narrated from him. Ibn al-Qattān said: ‘His uprightness has not been established.’”

I had previously thought that this Abū Hāzim was Salmān Abū Hāzim al-Ashjaī al-Kūfī. However, when I found the hadith in Ibn Hibbān’s work, it became clear to me that I had been mistaken and that he was someone else. He is not among the narrators relied upon by the Two Shaykhs; indeed, no one other than Ibn Hibbān and Ibn Abd al-Barr declared him trustworthy. Nor did al-Hāfiz deem him trustworthy; rather, he said in al-Taqrīb: “Acceptable”—meaning when corroborated; otherwise, his hadith is weak.

From the foregoing, you can see that al-Mundhirī’s statement in al-Targhīb (1/279)—“Ahmad transmitted it through several routes, the narrators of some of which are trustworthy”—is far from correct. The same applies to al-Haythamī’s statement in al-Majma (5/200): “Ahmad transmitted it, and the narrators in two of its four routes are trustworthy; it was also transmitted by Abū Yalā and al-Bazzār.” Their statements give the impression that it has more than one route from Abū Hurayra, even though neither Ahmad nor any of the other sources from which we cited it transmits it by any route other than the one mentioned. They also give the impression that their description of its narrators as trustworthy carries weight, despite what you have learned regarding the unknown status of Abbād ibn Abī Alī. I would add here that no one other than Ibn Hibbān declared him trustworthy. Al-Hāfiz therefore did not give weight to that judgment and described him as “acceptable.” As you have learned, he means that the narrator is weak when narrating alone, as is the case here.

Abū Hurayra does, however, have another hadith whose chain of transmission is better than this one. Its wording is: He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “A man will soon wish that he had fallen from the Pleiades and had never assumed responsibility for any of the people’s affairs.”