The hadith also has another chain of transmission. Al-Tirmidhi said: Sufyan ibn Wakiʿ narrated to us; Humayd ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman narrated to us from Dawud al-ʿAttar, from Maʿmar, from Qatadah, from Anas ibn Malik, attributing it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with the same wording. He said: “It is a singular hadith; we know it from Qatadah only through this route. Abu Qilabah has also narrated something similar from Anas, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him; but Abu Qilabah’s hadith is the well-known one.”

I say: All its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, except Sufyan ibn Wakiʿ. Al-Hafiz said: “He was truthful, but he was afflicted through his copyist, who inserted into his material reports that were not from his hadith. He was advised, but did not accept the advice, and thus his hadith was discredited.”

The hadith has supporting reports from Ibn ʿUmar through two routes, from Abu Mihjan, and from al-Hasan al-Basri as a mursal report; some of them are lengthy and others abridged. Ibn ʿAsakir recorded them (2/296/2, 6/282/2, and 11/97/2) with weak chains of transmission. Abu Yaʿla recorded the first route from Ibn ʿUmar in his Musnad (4/1384), al-Hakim recorded the other route from him (3/535), and Abu Nuʿaym recorded it in al-Hilyah (1/56), adding in one version: “and the most generous of them.” Its chain includes Zakariyya ibn Yahya al-Minqari, whom I have not been able to identify. In al-Manawi, however, his name appears as Zakariyya ibn Yahya al-Muqriʾ, which is a scribal error.

Ibn ʿAsakir also recorded it (13/370/2–371/1) through al-Tabarani, with his chain from Mandal ibn ʿAli, from Ibn Jurayj, from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jabir, attributing something similar to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He added at its end: “And ʿUmayr has been granted devotion”—meaning Abu al-Dardaʾ. Mandal is weak.

Abu Nuʿaym recorded in al-Hilyah (1/56), through ʿAbd al-Aʿla al-Sami from ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar, and through al-Kawthar ibn Hakim—both from Nafiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, attributing it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him—with the wording: “The most modest of my community is ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan.” One version adds: “and the most generous of them.”