I say: It is no more than sound, for Ibn Maʿīn said of Rajāʾ ibn Haywa, “He is fairly reliable,” while Abū Zurʿa said, “There is no fault in him.” Ibn Hibbān included him in al-Thiqāt. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Mīzān: “It is also said that Ibn Qutayba criticized him.”

Al-Haythamī cited the hadith in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid and said (7/55):

“Al-Bazzār narrated it, and its transmitters are reliable.” Elsewhere (1/171), he said: “Al-Bazzār and al-Tabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr. Its chain is sound, and all its transmitters have been deemed reliable.”

Al-Bazzār said, “Its chain is acceptable,” as cited in Ibn Rajab al-Hanbalī’s Sharh al-Arbaʿīn (p. 200). The hadith that follows conveys the same meaning.

3—(Salman al-Fārisī reported: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was asked about clarified butter, cheese, and firāʾ. He replied: “Whatever Allah has made lawful in His Book is lawful, and whatever He has forbidden in His Book is forbidden. Whatever He has left unmentioned is among what He has pardoned for you.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah.) p. 21

Weak. Al-Tirmidhī (1/322) and Ibn Mājah (3367) narrated it, as did al-Hākim (4/115), al-Bayhaqī (10/12), al-ʿUqaylī in al-Duʿafāʾ (p. 176), and Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (2/185), by way of Sayf ibn Hārūn al-Burjumī, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Salman, with this wording. Al-Hākim said: “This is an explicit hadith on the subject. Neither al-Bukhārī nor Muslim narrated from Sayf ibn Hārūn.” Al-Dhahabī responded: “I say: A number of scholars declared him weak”—meaning this Sayf. Al-Hāfiz said in al-Taqrīb: “Weak; Ibn Hibbān spoke of him in exceedingly harsh terms.”

Al-Tirmidhī indicated that the hadith is weak, saying:

“It is a singular hadith. We know it as traced back to the Prophet only through this route. Sufyān and others narrated it from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Salman, as Salman’s own statement. It appears that the report narrated only as Salman’s own statement…”