I say: He was trustworthy, but he had become confused in his later years. Al-Thawrī contradicted him, saying: from Wāʾil ibn Dāwūd, from Saʿīd ibn ʿUmayr, from his uncle. Al-Ḥākim narrated it and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

The second route is from Ibn ʿUmar. Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah narrated to us; Qudāmah ibn Shihāb al-Māzinī narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid narrated to us, from Wabrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Ibn ʿUmar, attributing it to the Prophet, with the same wording. He said: “No one narrated it from Ismāʿīl except Qudāmah; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah was alone in narrating it.” I say: There is no issue with him, and the rest of its narrators are trustworthy; thus, the chain is authentic, if Allah wills.

Al-Mundhirī (3/3), followed by al-Haythamī (4/61), said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr and al-Awsaṭ, and its narrators are trustworthy.” Shurayk also narrated it from Wāʾil ibn Dāwūd, from Jamīʿ ibn ʿUmayr, from his maternal uncle Abū Burdah, attributing it to the Prophet, with the same wording. Aḥmad (3/466) and al-Ḥākim also narrated it. This is another discrepancy concerning Wāʾil. Al-Ḥākim said: “Whenever al-Thawrī and Shurayk differ, the ruling is in favour of al-Thawrī.”

I say: There is no doubt about this, for Shurayk had poor retention, whereas al-Thawrī was a trustworthy, precise memorizer and an imam. Therefore, another narrator’s contradiction of him does not harm him. Abū ʿUbayd said in Gharīb al-Ḥadīth (folio 121/2): “Abū Muʿāwiyah and Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah both narrated to us, from Wāʾil ibn Dāwūd, from Saʿīd ibn ʿUmayr, who said: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked …” He then cited it as a mursal report, without mentioning “from his uncle” in its chain of transmission. This is an authentic addition, because al-Thawrī narrated it, even though al-Bayhaqī judged it mistaken, as al-Mundhirī related from him. And Allah knows best. Then I saw in al-ʿIlal by Ibn Abī Ḥātim, who said (2/443):