each other’s blood. This had been decreed by Allah, just as it had been decreed for the nations before them. So I asked Him to grant me intercession for them on the Day of Resurrection, and He did so.”

It was narrated by Ibn Abi ʿAsim in al-Sunnah (71/2), Ibn Bishran in al-Amali (26/2), al-Tabarani in al-Awsat—and from him by Ibn ʿAsakir in al-Tarikh (5/116/2)—and al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak (1/68), all through Abu al-Yaman al-Hakam ibn Nafiʿ al-Bahrani: Shuʿayb ibn Abi Hamzah narrated to us from al-Zuhri, who said: Anas ibn Malik narrated to us from Umm Habibah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as a report attributed to him, with this wording.

Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim, though neither of them included it. The reason they did not include it, in their view, is that Abu al-Yaman narrated it twice: on one occasion, he said, ‘From Shuʿayb, from al-Zuhri, from Anas’; and on another, ‘From Ibn Abi al-Hasan, from Anas.’ We have previously stated concerning such reports from him that it is not objectionable for a hadith to be known to one of the leading imams through two shaykhs: at one time he narrates it from this one, and at another from the other.”

I say: This response is not sound here, for the reason that follows. Abu Zurʿah al-Nasri al-Dimashqi said in al-Thani min Hadithihi (49/1): “I asked Abu ʿAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Hanbal about this hadith of Abu al-Yaman, and he said: ‘He has no basis for it from al-Zuhri.’ He informed me that it was from Shuʿayb’s hadith, as it had been attached to al-Zuhri’s book. He said: ‘It has reached me that Abu al-Yaman was accused, though it has no basis,’ as though he held that it had become confused with al-Zuhri’s book because it was attached to it. I saw that he seemed to excuse Abu al-Yaman and not hold him responsible.”

Abu Zurʿah said: “I also asked Ahmad ibn Salih about it when he arrived in Damascus in the year 219 AH, and he told me the same as Ahmad: that it has no basis from al-Zuhri.” Ibn ʿAsakir narrated this from Abu Zurʿah (5/116/2).

Then Ibn ʿAsakir narrated through the route of ʿAbd Allah—and this is found in the Musnad (9/427–428): “My father narrated to me: Abu al-Yaman narrated to us: Shuʿayb ibn Abi Hamzah narrated to us”—and he mentioned this hadith immediately after the hadiths of Ibn Abi al-Husayn—“he said: Anas ibn Malik informed us, from Umm Habibah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,”