I say: In my view, the hadith is good when all these routes are considered together. And Allah knows best.

856 — “The middle of the road is not for women.”

Al-Mukhalliṣ narrated it in al-Fawāʾid al-Muntaqā (9/5/2), as did Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1969—Mawārid) and Ibn ʿAdī (192/1), from whom al-Bayhaqī narrated it in al-Shuʿab (2/475/2), through Muslim ibn Khālid al-Zanjī, who said: Shurayk ibn Abī Namir informed us, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This chain is good in light of what follows. Al-Dūlābī (1/45) and al-Bayhaqī in Shuʿab al-Īmān (2/475/1) also narrated it from al-Ḥārith ibn al-Ḥakam, from Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥammās, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording, except that he said: “the upper part of the road.”

I say: This is a mursal report from Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥammās. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: “Acceptable, of the sixth tier; he died in the year thirty-nine”—that is, 139 AH. Ibn Abī Ḥātim included al-Ḥārith ibn al-Ḥakam in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (1/2/73), but mentioned no criticism or accreditation concerning him.

Shaddād ibn Abī ʿAmr ibn Ḥammās contradicted him, reporting: from his father, from Ḥamzah ibn Abī Usayd al-Anṣārī, from his father, that he heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say, as he was leaving the mosque and the men had mingled with the women in the road: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to the women: