Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr said:

“This is a mursal report from al-Ḥasan, and it is good. Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān and others declared it authentic, and our shaykh al-Mizzī affirmed its authenticity through these chains.”

I say: Al-Ḥāfiẓ did not grade it as good, despite the fact that its transmitters are among the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections, because Khālid ibn Khidāsh and his shaykh, Ḥazm, have been subject to criticism. Concerning the former, al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said: “Truthful, but prone to error.” Concerning the latter, he said: “Truthful, but makes mistakes.” From this, you may recognize the error in his statement in Fatḥ al-Bārī (11/293): “The mursal report was narrated by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā through an authentic chain to al-Ḥasan …”

I say: Yes, it is authentic from al-Ḥasan through the other chain from him to which al-Tirmidhī referred in his preceding remarks, namely the narration of al-Ashʿath ibn ʿAbd al-Malik from him. Strangely, neither of the two ḥadīth masters, Ibn Ḥajar and Ibn Kathīr, mentioned it! In sum, the hadith is good or authentic when all of its chains are considered together. Allah knows best.

I then found another supporting narration for it, from the hadith of ʿAwf ibn Mālik, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording. It contains an addition for which reason I included it in al-Ḍaʿīfah (2450).

1590 — “Indeed, the believers most complete in faith are those best in character, and good character indeed attains the rank of fasting and prayer.”

Al-Bazzār narrated it in his Musnad (no. 35 in al-Kashf): Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā narrated to us; Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṭāʾī narrated to us; Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb narrated to us, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said this. He then said: