by Ibn Kathir from al-Tirmidhi, for its chain cannot be classified as good, since it contains three defects:
First: the mursal discontinuity mentioned and preferred by al-Tirmidhi.
Second: al-Hasan al-Basri’s ambiguous use of “from,” for he practised concealment in transmission, especially in reports from Samurah.
Third: Saʿid ibn Bashir, an Azdi client, who is weak, as stated in al-Taqrib.
Al-Haythami cited the hadith in al-Majmaʿ (10/363) in a fuller wording:
“Indeed, the Prophets will vie in boasting over which of them has the greatest number of followers from his community. I hope that on that Day I shall have the greatest number of arrivals among them all. Each of them will then be standing beside a full pool, holding a staff and calling those of his community whom he recognizes. Every community will have a distinguishing mark by which its Prophet recognizes them.”
He said: “Al-Tabarani narrated it, and its chain contains Marwan ibn Jaʿfar al-Samuri, whom Ibn Abi Hatim declared trustworthy. Al-Azdi said: ‘They have spoken critically of him,’ while the rest of its narrators are reliable.”
I say: If, as he says, its narrators are reliable and the chain contains nothing that impugns its soundness, then in my view the chain is good, for this al-Samuri is truthful and acceptable in hadith, as Ibn Abi Hatim reported from his father (4/1/276). His assessment takes precedence over al-Azdi’s criticism, since al-Azdi himself is subject to criticism!
Then I came across its chain in al-Tabarani (7053), and found that it runs through the aforementioned al-Samuri:
Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Khubayb ibn Sulayman ibn Samurah narrated to us: (Jaʿfar ibn Saʿd ibn Samurah narrated to us, from Khubayb ibn Sulayman ibn Samurah) (1), from his father, from Samurah.
I say: This is a weak chain. No one declared Sulayman ibn Samurah reliable apart from Ibn Hibban (3/94); his son Khubayb is unknown; and Jaʿfar ibn Saʿd is not a strong narrator, as stated in al-Taqrib. The hadith has two connected corroborating reports and a third mursal report.