And al-Ḥārith—who was al-Aʿwar—was weak.

Note: Al-Suyūṭī, in al-Ziyādah, attributed the hadith under this heading to Ibn al-Sunnī and al-Ḥākim. As you have learned from the preceding discussion, the wording in the versions other than al-Ḥākim’s is abbreviated. Thus, if it is permissible nevertheless to attribute it to Ibn al-Sunnī, then attributing it to the others whom we mentioned alongside him is more warranted, for they are of a higher rank than he—especially Imam Aḥmad, who is the highest-ranking and most eminent of them, and whose wording is the most complete.

1654 — “Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon those who partake of the pre-dawn meal.”

It was narrated by Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aṣamm in Juzʾ min Ḥadīthihi (188/2, Majmūʿ 24), Ibn Ḥibbān (880), al-Rūyānī in his Musnad (249/1), Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Khallāl in al-Muntakhab min al-Muntakhab min Tadhkirat Shuyūkhih (48/1), and likewise al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ (1/99/2), through Idrīs ibn Yaḥyā, who said: Ibn ʿAyyāsh al-Quatabānī narrated to me; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān narrated to me; from Nāfiʿ; from Ibn ʿUmar, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Al-Ṭabarānī said: “It is narrated from Ibn ʿUmar only through this chain of transmission; Idrīs alone narrated it.”

I say: He was truthful, as Ibn Abī Ḥātim stated (1/1/265), and he reported that Abū Zurʿah said of him: “A righteous man, among the finest of the Muslims.” The narrators above him are reliable narrators used by Muslim, apart from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān, the Egyptian, whom no one besides Ibn Ḥibbān declared reliable. Al-Bazzār said: “He narrated hadiths for which he was not corroborated.”

I say: This may be the reason for what appears in al-ʿIlal of Ibn Abī Ḥātim (1/243–244): “I asked my father about this hadith, and he said: ‘This is a rejected hadith.’” However, the hadith has a supporting report from the hadith of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording.