in addition to this ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, there are three other transmitters who are completely unknown, as has also been pointed out earlier. How, then, can anyone still maintain, “Had al-Dhahabī seen this chain, he would not have voiced that ruling”?! O Allah, such a claim is blatant sophistry and obstinate denial—or else layered ignorance. So we implore Your mercy and guidance, O Allah!

It has become clear to our esteemed readers, from what has already passed, that the report suffers from two defects:

1. The presence of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, who is extremely weak.
2. The anonymity of the chain leading up to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān.

I would add a third flaw: confusion (iḍṭirāb) on the part of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, or those below him, regarding its isnād. At times he attributes it to the Prophet, as we have seen; at other times he relates it only as a saying of ʿUmar without tracing it back to the Prophet. Abū Bakr al-Ājurrī records it in his work al-Sharīʿah (p. 427) through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Maryam from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd—but I do not know this ʿAbd Allāh either—so the report cannot stand, whether taken as a Prophetic narration or merely ascribed to ʿUmar. Al-Ājurrī then transmits it by another path from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Zinād, from his father, who said: Among the words by which Adam sought repentance were: “O Allah, I ask You by the right of Muhammad upon You…,” the narration appearing in a shortened form. Besides being mursal and mawqūf, its chain to Ibn Abī al-Zinād is exceedingly weak; it includes ʿUthmān ibn Khālid, the father of Abū Marwān al-ʿUthmānī, about whom al-Nasāʾī said, “He is not reliable.”