Hasan ibn Ibn Yazīd al-Jassās; Muslim ibn Abd Rabbih narrated to us; Sufyān al-Thawrī narrated to us, from Abū Muhammad Sufyān ibn Uyayna, from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, traced back to the Prophet. Ibn al-Najjār narrated it through this same route in Dhayl Tārīkh Baghdād (10/145/2), as did al-Khatīb in his Tārīkh (7/209).

I say: Regarding Muslim ibn Abd Rabbih, al-Dhahabī stated in al-Mīzān: “Al-Azdī deemed him weak. I do not know who he is.”

After attributing it to al-Khatīb, Fayd al-Qadīr states:

“Its chain contains Ali ibn Umar al-Harbī. Al-Dhahabī listed him in al-Duafā and said: ‘Truthful, though al-Barqānī deemed him weak.’ Al-Azdī deemed Muslim ibn Abd Rabbih weak, and it was on this basis that al-Hāfiz al-Irāqī declared its chain weak without qualification. Al-Alāī said: ‘Al-Azdī deemed Muslim weak, and I have found no one who declared him trustworthy. However, the hadith has three transmission routes, and it is quite possible that, owing to them, it does not fall below the grade of good.’”

I say: As for attributing the hadith to Imam Ahmad—as it appears in the book—this is perhaps a typographical error. Ahmad did not narrate it with this wording, nor has anyone attributed it to him. What he does narrate in al-Musnad is the hadith of Ibn Abbās, who reported that someone asked the Messenger of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, “Which religion is dearest to Allah?” He replied, “The pure monotheistic faith, a religion of ease.” Al-Bukhārī cited it without a complete chain in his Sahīh and gave it with a connected chain in al-Adab al-Mufrad (287), through Muhammad ibn Ishāq, from Dāwūd ibn Husayn, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbās. Al-Hāfiz stated in al-Fath (1/87): “Its chain is good.”

So he said, although in his biographical entry on Dāwūd ibn Husayn in al-Taqrīb, he himself states:

“Trustworthy, except in his narrations from Ikrima.”

Yet this is one of his narrations from Ikrima, as you can see. In his biographical entry on Muhammad ibn Ishāq, he stated: