and he was weak owing to his poor retention. All the other narrators are trustworthy, apart from ʿAmr ibn Kaʿb, whom I have not been able to identify. Kaʿb ibn Mālik had a number of sons who narrated from him, but al-Ḥāfiẓ did not mention him among them in Al-Tahdhīb. They did, however, list among Ibn Khuṣayfah’s shaykhs ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik. Ibn Abī Ḥātim, in his biography of this ʿAmr (3/1/243), mentioned that he heard Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, and that Yazīd ibn Khuṣayfah narrated from him. He mentioned no criticism or commendation of him.

Accordingly, the phrase “from his father” in this chain can only mean ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik. If that is so, the hadith is mursal, since this ʿAbd Allāh was a Successor. This is complicated by the fact that Imam Aḥmad included it in the Musnad of Kaʿb ibn Mālik, as though he had followed the apparent meaning of the chain. Al-Haythamī and others followed him in this. Thus, in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (5/114), he said: “From Kaʿb ibn Mālik ... Aḥmad and al-Ṭabarānī narrated it. Its chain contains Abū Maʿshar Nujayḥ, who was declared trustworthy, although a great many scholars deemed him weak. The appraisal of him as trustworthy is lenient, while the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.”

But ʿAmr is not named in al-Kharāʾiṭī’s chain; it merely states: “from Ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik.” Were it not for Aḥmad’s narration, it would have been possible to say that he was ʿAbd Allāh, ʿUbayd Allāh, Muḥammad, Maʿbad, or ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, for all of them were his sons and narrated from him. And Allah knows best.

The hadith is authentic, having a corroborating report from ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ al-Thaqafī, attributed to the Prophet, with similar but more complete wording. Muslim, al-Kharāʾiṭī (p. 94), and others recorded it, and it has been referenced in Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah (p. 68).

After writing the foregoing, it became clear to me that Abū Maʿshar had erred in its chain of transmission. Mālik stated in Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (2/942), from Yazīd ibn Khuṣayfah, that ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb al-Sulamī informed him that Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr informed him, from ʿUthmān ibn Abī al-ʿĀṣ, that he came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. ʿUthmān said: “I had a pain that nearly destroyed me.” He said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, then said: “Wipe it with your right hand seven times, and say:”