Al-Ḥākim added—and so did al-Ṭabarānī, Abū Nuʿaym, and al-Khaṭīb in one of their versions: “Except for the two maternal cousins: Jesus son of Mary and John son of Zachariah.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “This hadith has been authenticated through numerous chains, and I am astonished that the two of them did not record it.”

Al-Dhahabī objected, saying: “I say: al-Ḥakam is somewhat weak.” He meant al-Ḥakam ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿm. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful, but poor in retention.”

I say: Al-Haythamī cited the hadith in al-Majmaʿ (9–201), with the first addition, and said: “Al-Tirmidhī narrated it without mentioning Fāṭimah and Mary; Aḥmad and Abū Yaʿlā also narrated it, and the narrators of both are narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ.” This is what he said, but it is open to objection on two grounds:

First, it gives the impression that their narrators were relied upon in the Ṣaḥīḥ, whereas this is not so. Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, whose weakness has already been explained, was not relied upon in the Ṣaḥīḥ—that is, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. Rather, Muslim narrated from him only in conjunction with another narrator, as al-Dhahabī explicitly stated at the end of his biographical entry.

Second, it gives the impression that this Yazīd is independently an authoritative narrator, whereas this is not so, as has already been explained.

The hadith also has another chain, narrated by ʿAṭiyyah from Abū Saʿīd, with the same wording but without the addition. It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī and al-Khaṭīb (9–232).