I then found that Ibn Ḥibbān (1939) recorded the hadith through Abū Yaʿlā: Muḥammad ibn Bakkār narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Zakariyyā narrated to us; ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal narrated to us with the same chain.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to Muslim’s criteria. Ibn Bakkār is al-ʿĀyishī al-Baṣrī. Thus, the hadith is authentic, praise be to Allah.
- “Whoever sees someone afflicted and says: ‘Praise be to Allah, who has spared me from that with which He has afflicted you and has greatly favoured me over many of those whom He created,’ that affliction will not befall him.”
Al-Tirmidhī (2/253) recorded it through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-ʿUmarī, from Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said—and he then mentioned it.
He said: “A good, singular hadith from this route.”
I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from al-ʿUmarī, who is weak because of his poor memory. I found for it another route that is better than this one: Marwān ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭāṭarī narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn ʿUtbah narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Sūqah narrated to us, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording.
Abū Nuʿaym recorded it in al-Ḥilyah (5/13) and in Akhbār Iṣfahān (1/271); and Ibn ʿAsākir recorded it from him in Tārīkh Dimashq (15/255/2), through several routes from Marwān, with this chain. Abū Nuʿaym said: “It is singular among Muḥammad’s reports; Marwān alone narrated it from al-Walīd.”