Muslim recorded it in this manner through Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us from Ibn Jurayj, with the same report.

Imam Aḥmad differed from him, saying (3/317): “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us,” with the same chain, except that he said, “No,” in place of “Yes.” Al-Bukhārī and al-Bayhaqī likewise recorded it through Musaddad, who said: “Yaḥyā narrated to us,” with the same chain. ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī also corroborated this in al-Nasāʾī, as cited in al-Fatḥ (9/455).

Thus, these three trustworthy hadith masters—Aḥmad, Musaddad, and ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī—differed from Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim, reporting “No” in place of “Yes.” There is no doubt that their narration is more weighty, and this is what al-Ḥāfiẓ decisively affirmed. He said: “The version found in al-Bukhārī is the one to be relied upon. Al-Ḥumaydī drew attention in his compilation to the difference between al-Bukhārī and Muslim over this word, and ʿIyāḍ followed him; but neither of them stated a preference. The commentators on al-Bukhārī have altogether overlooked this, as far as I have found.”

I say: However, the hadith was also narrated from Ibn Jurayj through a route other than Yaḥyā: namely, the route of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār from ʿAṭāʾ, with the meaning of the wording in Muḥammad ibn Ḥātim’s hadith, as you have seen. Accordingly, there is an earlier disagreement over this word, between ʿAmr ibn Dīnār on the one hand and Ibn Jurayj on the other. Both were trustworthy hadith masters, so their two narrations must either be reconciled or one preferred over the other; reconciliation is the basic course. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar attempted this when, after his aforementioned preference for al-Bukhārī’s negative version over Muslim’s affirmative one, he said: “What is meant by the word ‘No’ is not a negation of the ruling. Rather, what is meant is that Jābir did not explicitly state that they continued doing this until they arrived. Thus, on this understanding, the meaning of his statement in ʿAmr ibn Dīnār’s narration, ‘We would take provisions of the meat of the sacrificial offerings to Medina,’ is that they did so because they were heading for Medina; it does not necessarily mean that the meat remained with them until they reached Medina. And Allah knows best.”