“None narrated it from Yahya except Husayn; none narrated it from him except Ibrahim; and none narrated it from him except al-Qasim. Ahmad alone narrated it.”

I say: He is trustworthy, as are those above him. As for Ahmad, al-Tabarani’s shaykh, he apparently was Ahmad ibn Hamdun al-Mawsili. In al-Muʿjam al-Saghir (p. 10, Indian edition), al-Tabarani narrated another hadith from Salih ibn Abd al-Samad al-Asadi al-Mawsili: “Al-Qasim ibn Yazid al-Jarmi narrated to us,” through his chain of transmission, from Jabir. Al-Haythami deemed its chain good in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (2/75), so he apparently considered him trustworthy. Indeed, in his documentation of the hadith under discussion, he explicitly stated this, saying (1/206): “Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Awsat, and its narrators are narrators of the Sahih collections, apart from al-Tabarani’s shaykh and his shaykh’s shaykh; both are trustworthy.”

I say: As for al-Mundhiri’s statement, “Al-Tabarani recorded it, and its narrators are narrators of the Sahih collections,” it is open to two objections. First, he attributed it to al-Tabarani without qualification, giving the impression that it was in his al-Muʿjam al-Kabir, whereas this is not so. Second, he gave the impression that all its narrators are narrators of the Sahih collections, which is likewise not so, as explained above. He should therefore have qualified his statement, as al-Haythami did. Infallibility belongs to Allah Most High alone.

I have not found a biographical entry for Ahmad ibn Hamdun al-Mawsili in the sources available to me. Perhaps he is mentioned in Ibn Hibban’s al-Thiqat (The Trustworthy Narrators), as is suggested by al-Haythami and al-Mundhiri’s declaring him trustworthy, or in Tarikh al-Mawsil (The History of Mosul).

1099 — “Allah Most High says: ‘O son of Adam, how can you deem Me incapable when I created you from the like of this? Then, once I had fashioned you and proportioned you, you walked between