– In Ibn Mardawayh’s recension the chain runs through Qatadah, Sulayman al-Taymi, Thumamah, and ‘Ali ibn Zayd, all the way to Anas. He offered no critical remarks about it, as is his wont.

As for Dr. al-Harras, he commented:
“This report is firmly established from Anas by numerous routes, for it was transmitted by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad … by ‘Abd ibn Humayd in his Musnad and his Tafsir … and by Ibn Mardawayh in his Tafsir … all of them through Hammad ibn Salamah, from ‘Ali ibn Zayd, from Anas.”

That is the sum of his documentation. It is obvious to any discerning reader, however, that these chains all pass through Hammad ibn Salamah; they do not represent independent routes from Anas himself. Therefore his statement, “It was narrated by Imam Ahmad …,” and so on, after claiming “numerous routes,” is clearly mistaken.

As for the genuinely “numerous routes,” they appear only in the narration that al-Suyuti ascribed to Ibn Mardawayh—if, that is, the chain leading to them is sound, which I doubt, especially since al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir cited from Ibn Mardawayh only the chain that passes through Ibn Judʿan. He did, however, mention what follows, namely:

Tenth: from Ibn Mardawayh’s narration—and likewise Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, no. 35 in Mawarid, and Ibn Abi Hatim—from the report of Hisham al-Dastuwa’i, from