Al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ghallābī said in Ibn Maʿīn’s Questions: “I asked him about a hadith which ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar—al-Raqqī—narrated to me from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr—al-Raqqī—who said: ‘A man from Kufa narrated to me, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays,’ who said...” I said: Then he cited it. He replied: “Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn Qays was not al-Fihri.”

I say: This narration of Ibn Jaʿfar indicates that the Kufan man was omitted from Ibn ʿAsākir’s chain of transmission. This was perhaps due to Manṣūr ibn Ṣuqayr, for he is weak; Ibn Mandah also transmitted it through his route, as stated in al-Tahdhīb.

A narration has also come down naming the Kufan man. Abū Dāwūd transmitted it (5271) through Marwān, who said: Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān al-Kūfī narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, from Umm ʿAṭiyyah al-Anṣāriyyah: “A woman used to perform circumcision in Medina, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said ...” Then he cited it in similar wording. He said: “It has also been narrated from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAbd al-Malik, with the same meaning and chain of transmission.” Abū Dāwūd said: “It is not strong, and it has also been narrated as mursal. Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān is unknown, and this hadith is weak.”

I say: The reason for its weakness is the unknown status of a narrator and inconsistency in its chain of transmission, as you can see. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said, after Ibn Ṣuqayr’s narration in Ibn Mandah: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar al-Raqqī, who is more reliable than Manṣūr, inserted between ʿUbayd Allāh and ʿAbd al-Malik the unnamed Kufan man. Marwān ibn Muʿāwiyah’s narration makes it apparent that he was Muḥammad ibn Ḥassān al-Kūfī. He alone narrated it, and he is unknown. It follows from this that there is disagreement—