It was transmitted by al-Ṭaḥāwī and al-Ḥākim, and from the latter by al-Bayhaqī, who deemed it weak, saying: “Salamah ibn al-Faḍl al-Abrash narrates objectionable reports.”

I say: Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “He is truthful but makes many errors.” It also has another hidden defect: Ibn Isḥāq narrates it using the ambiguous ‘from’ formula, while he practised tadlīs. Yet al-Ḥākim said: “It is authentic according to the criteria of Muslim”! Al-Dhahabī rebutted him, saying: “That is what he said, but Muslim did not rely on Salamah. Though he was deemed trustworthy, Ibn Rāhawayh declared him weak.”

I say: Likewise, Muslim did not rely on Ibn Isḥāq; rather, he narrated from him only as corroboration, despite the fact that he practised tadlīs and narrated it using the ambiguous ‘from’ formula. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī said thereafter: “Thus, from the hadith of ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, it has become clear to us that the saying of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, which Abū Hurayrah narrated from him—‘The child born of fornication is the worst of the three’—was only about a particular person whose harm to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was such as made him a disbeliever, worse than his mother and than the fornicator by whom she had conceived him. We ask Allah Most High to grant us success.”

I say: However, the chain of transmission of her hadith contains the weakness already noted, and this prevents the hadith from being interpreted by it. The preferable course is to interpret it in accordance with Sufyān’s statement, which is supported by two hadiths attributed to the Prophet, even if they are weak—unless someone finds evidence stronger than this, in which case it should be adopted. Ibn al-Qayyim’s words in his epistle al-Manār, may Allah have mercy on him, suggest that he inclined towards this interpretation, since its implication is that the hadith is not general in application. For he mentioned the hadith, “No child born of fornication shall enter Paradise,” and related Ibn al-Jawzī’s statement that it conflicts with the verse: “No bearer of burdens shall bear ...”