He also has another authentic chain of transmission with similar, but more complete, wording. I mentioned it earlier under the wording, “Whose intercession prevents …”; see no. 437. It is also documented in al-Irwāʾ, no. 2376, which is currently in press.

1022 — “When someone whose character and religion please you comes to you, marry him off. If you do not, there will be tribulation in the land and widespread corruption.”

Al-Tirmidhī (1/201), Ibn Mājah (1/606–607), al-Ḥākim (2/164–165), and al-Khaṭīb in al-Tārīkh (11/61) recorded it through ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Sulaymān al-Anṣārī—brother of Fulayḥ—from Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from Ibn Wathīmah al-Baṣrī, from Abū Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him.

Al-Tirmidhī said: “ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Sulaymān was contradicted: al-Layth ibn Saʿd narrated it from Ibn ʿAjlān, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, as a mursal report—that is, with a break in its chain. Muḥammad—that is, al-Bukhārī—said: ‘Al-Layth’s hadith is more likely correct,’ and he did not consider ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd’s hadith to be preserved.”

Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī critiqued this, saying: “I say: Regarding ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Abū Dāwūd said: ‘He was not trustworthy’; and Wathīmah is unknown.”

I say: Al-Ḥākim thus has it as “Wathīmah,” whereas it is actually “Ibn Wathīmah,” as found in the accounts of all the other scholars who recorded it. He is known: Zufar ibn Wathīmah ibn Mālik ibn Aws al-Ḥadathān al-Nuṣrī—spelled with an n—of Damascus. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muhājir also narrated from him. Ibn al-Qaṭṭān said that his status is unknown, and that only Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Shaʿbī narrated from him. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Mīzān: “I say: Ibn Maʿīn and Duḥaym declared him trustworthy.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “Acceptable.”

I say: The flaw in the hadith is this ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, for he is weak, and the trustworthy narrator contradicted him by narrating it as mursal, as al-Tirmidhī mentioned. Were it not for that, I would consider its chain good. Nevertheless, it is good on account of corroborating evidence, since it has a supporting report with the wording: “When there comes to you one whose …” It is documented in al-Irwāʾ, no. 1868.