I say: This chain of transmission has trustworthy narrators, except that Ibn Adhnan was not declared reliable by anyone other than Ibn Hibban. There is disagreement over his name, but the more likely view is that it was Sulaym, as the critical scholar Ahmad Shakir—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—held. This will shortly be stated explicitly in some of the other routes. ʿAtaʾ ibn al-Saʾib, however, became confused in his later years.

Yet the hadith has another route. Al-Tabarani said in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (no. 9180): “ʿAli ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz narrated to us; Abu Nuʿaym informed us; Dalham ibn Salih informed us; Humayd ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Thaqafi told me that ʿAlqamah ibn Qays borrowed one thousand dirhams from ʿAbd Allah…” He then related a similar report, but did not attribute its final part to the Prophet. Its wording is: “ʿAbd Allah said: ‘For me to lend money twice is dearer to me than to give it in charity once.’” Dalham is weak. As for Humayd ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Thaqafi, Ibn Abi Hatim mentioned him (1/2/224) on account of this chain, without citing either any criticism or accreditation of him.

The final clause of it has also been transmitted through two other routes from Ibn Masʿud, attributed to the Prophet; thus, taken together, it is authentic. And Allah knows best. See Takhrij al-Targhib (2/34).

Qays ibn Rumi also corroborated him regarding its final clause, narrating from Sulaym ibn Adhnan, with the report attributed to the Prophet, in the wording: “Whoever lends silver twice will have the equivalent of giving it in charity once.” It was recorded by al-Kharaʾiti in Makarim al-Akhlaq (p. 19), Ibn Shahin in al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib (1/314), and al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan (5/353). It also has another route from al-Aswad ibn Yazid, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Whoever gives a loan twice will have the reward of one of them, as though he had given it in charity.”