Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah al-Zubayrī likewise differed from him, narrating it from Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah. Al-Baghawī recorded it in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (3/3/1) and said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUwaym was not a Companion.” Al-Bayhaqī said the same after relating it through the route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr al-Ḥumaydī, who said: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah narrated to us, with the hadith.

I say: Thus, according to the version narrated by the group from Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah, it is mursal. As for Ibrāhīm al-Ḥizāmī’s version from him, it is connected, because he said “ʿUtbah ibn ʿUwaym” in place of “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUwaym.” ʿUtbah was a Companion, as was his father; but the version of the group is correct. From this, you may know that the statement of the author of al-Mishkāh (3092), “Ibn Mājah narrated it as mursal,” is erroneous. Ibn Mājah in fact narrated it with a connected chain, while al-Baghawī and others narrated it as mursal, as we have explained.

It has a corroborating report from the hadith of Jābir, attributed to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—with the addition: “and less prone to attachment.” Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Awsaṭ (1/163/1): Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Iṣṭakhrī narrated to us; ʿIṣmah ibn al-Mutawakkil informed us, from Baḥr al-Saqqāʾ, from Abū al-Zubayr, from him. He said: “No one narrated it from Baḥr except ʿIṣmah.”

I say: This is a very feeble chain of transmission, beset by successive defects:

The first: Abū al-Zubayr’s ambiguous mode of transmission, for he practised tadlīs.

The second: Baḥr al-Saqqāʾ, who is weak, as stated in al-Taqrīb.

The third: ʿIṣmah ibn al-Mutawakkil. Al-ʿUqaylī said in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (325):