Al-Haythami said in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (1/64): “Ahmad narrated it, as did al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Awsat and al-Muʿjam al-Saghir, except that al-Tabarani says in the hadith: ‘than one thousand of its like.’ Its chain revolves around Usamah ibn Zayd ibn Aslam, who is very weak.” That is what he said.

What appears more likely to us is that he is not Ibn Zayd ibn Aslam al-ʿAdawi, but rather Usamah ibn Zayd al-Laythi, one of Muslim’s narrators. As for al-ʿAdawi, he is weak. It would have been difficult—indeed, impossible—to determine which of the two was intended in al-Tabarani’s version of this hadith, since both of them narrated from Abdullah ibn Wahb. Neither is listed among the narrators from Abdullah ibn Dinar. It was only possible to identify him through Ahmad’s version, in which Usamah’s shaykh is named as al-Dibaj. It is mentioned in his biography in al-Tahdhib that Usamah ibn Zayd al-Laythi narrated from him. Thus, al-Haythami’s criticism of the hadith on account of Ibn Aslam is removed. And Allah knows best.

547 — “May Allah curse the scorpion: it spares neither one who is praying nor anyone else. So kill it both within and outside the Sacred Precinct.”

Ibn Majah (1246) and Ibn ʿAdi (68/1) narrated it through al-Hakam ibn Abd al-Malik, from Qatadah, from Saʿid ibn al-Musayyib, from ʿAʾishah, who said: A scorpion stung the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he was praying, whereupon he said the above. Ibn ʿAdi said: “I know it only as a narration of al-Hakam from Qatadah. Ibn Maʿin declared him weak.”

I say: Al-Hakam was not alone in narrating it; Ibn Khuzaymah narrated it in his Sahih from Muhammad ibn Bashshar, from Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar, from Shuʿbah, from Qatadah, with the same chain.

The hadith also has a strong supporting narration from ʿAli, may Allah be pleased with him, which explains the occasion on which it was said: “May Allah curse the scorpion: it spares neither one who is praying nor anyone else.” Then he called for water and salt, and began rubbing the site with it while reciting: “Say: O disbelievers”; “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of daybreak”; and “Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind.”