I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All of its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from Muhammad ibn ‘Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah. There has been some criticism of him, but it does not reduce his hadith below the rank of good, Allah willing, as I have explained in the introduction to Masā’il Ibn Abī Shaybah: His Teachers, a work authored by this Muhammad ibn ‘Uthman.

Al-Haythami (3/224), following al-Mundhiri (2/119), said: “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsat through two chains, the narrators of one of which are narrators of the Sahih.” That is what he said, though this Ibn Shaybah is not among the narrators of the Sahih. Al-Khatib, however, narrated it in his History (2/79) through Muhammad ibn Aban al-Balkhi, who said: “‘Abd al-Razzaq informed us, from Sufyan al-Thawri, from Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Muharrir ibn Abi Hurayrah, from his father,” tracing it back to the Prophet, with the wording: “No one ever begins the talbiyah without having his sins removed by the time the sun sets.”

The narrators of this chain are all narrators of al-Bukhari, apart from Muharrir ibn Abi Hurayrah, who is among the narrators of al-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah only. No one declared him trustworthy apart from Ibn Hibban. For this reason, al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar did not declare him trustworthy, but merely said: “Acceptable”—that is, when corroborated. Furthermore, the chain contains another hidden defect, which al-Khatib pointed out when he stated immediately afterward: “Muhammad ibn Aban alone narrated it from ‘Abd al-Razzaq, from al-Thawri. Al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Rabi‘ al-Jurjani contradicted him, narrating it from ‘Abd al-Razzaq, from Yasin al-Zayyat, from Ibn al-Munkadir, through the same chain.” He then cited his chain to al-Hasan with this narration.

He then cited another hadith of Muhammad ibn Aban al-Balkhi from ‘Abd al-Razzaq, concerning which Abu Dawud said: “They found fault with it as narrated by Ibn Aban!”

I say: Ibn Aban al-Balkhi and al-Hasan al-Jurjani are both trustworthy, but criticism has been made of the former regarding some of his narrations from ‘Abd al-Razzaq. Thus, where he contradicts others, his narration is anomalous and outweighed. Al-Khatib’s preceding remarks indicate this. The difference between his narration and that of al-Jurjani is that the former placed Sufyan al-Thawri in the position of Yasin al-Zayyat. Al-Thawri is a distinguished and well-known imam, whereas Yasin al-Zayyat is very weak; thus, he is the defect in this route. And Allah knows best.