Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Ṣaghīr (172), through Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī, from Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Abū Hurayrah, attributing it to the Prophet. Al-Ṭabarānī said: “No one narrated it from al-Jurayrī except Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī.”

I say: He is weak, as stated in al-Taqrīb; hence al-Mundhirī (3/260) indicated that the hadith is weak. Al-Haythamī (8/21) said: “Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Ṣaghīr and al-Awsaṭ, and its chain contains Ṣāliḥ ibn Bashīr al-Murrī, who is weak.” His teacher al-ʿIrāqī (2/141) likewise said: “Its chain is weak.” Al-Khaṭīb (5/563) also recorded it from al-Ṭabarānī.

I say: However, the hadith has numerous supporting reports that raise it to the level of good. Among them is:

“Indeed, the most beloved of you to me, and the nearest of you to me in the Hereafter, are those of you with the finest character. And the most hated of you to me, and the farthest of you from me in the Hereafter, are those of you with the worst character: the excessively talkative, the pretentious, and those who speak affectedly.”

Aḥmad recorded it (4/193, 194) through Dāwūd, from Makhūl, from Abū Thaʿlabah al-Khushanī, attributing it to the Prophet. This is a chain all of whose narrators are trustworthy narrators of Muslim. Al-Haythamī (8/21) said: “Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī recorded it, and the narrators in Aḥmad’s chain are narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ.” Al-Mundhirī (3/261) said the same, adding that Ibn Ḥibbān also recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ.

I say: Nevertheless, the hadith is interrupted, since Makhūl did not hear from Abū Thaʿlabah, as stated in al-Tahdhīb. Yet this interruption is remedied by the hadith’s transmission through other routes, among them those that will follow.