ibn Abī Rabāḥ, and he (al-Ḥākim) remarked, “Its chain of transmission is sound (ṣaḥīḥ),” a verdict with which al-Dhahabī agreed.

I say: Rather, its chain is ḥasan, for this Ibn Ghīlān was judged weak by some critics, while the majority declared him reliable. Al-Ḥāfiẓ says in al-Taqrīb: “Trustworthy, a jurist, accused of holding Qadarī views.”

Al-Ruyānī also related it in his Musnad (fol. 247/1) through ʿUthmān ibn ʿAṭāʾ, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, as a marfūʿ report.

This isnād is weak. The ʿAṭāʾ in question is Ibn Abī Muslim al-Khurasānī—trustworthy, yet a mudallis who narrates with an ʿanʿana—while his son ʿUthmān is weak, as al-Taqrīb states.

Thus all of these routes are weak except for al-Ḥākim’s; his isnād is the principal one, and if the others do not strengthen it, they certainly do not undermine it.

(al-sinīn): the plural of sana, meaning years of drought and famine.

yatakhayyarū: “they seek what is good,” i.e. so long as they do not seek the good and felicity contained in what Allah has revealed.

Part of the ḥadīth is corroborated by the narration of Buraydah ibn al-Ḥuṣayb, reported as marfūʿ in the wording:

“No people ever break a covenant without killing then spreading among them; no obscenity ever becomes widespread among a people without Allah unleashing death upon them; and no people ever withhold the zakāh without Allah withholding the rain from them.”