I then saw that al-Sakhawi, in al-Maqasid (p. 146), attributed it to al-‘Askari, from the hadith of Isma‘il ibn ‘Ayyash, from Mujammi‘ ibn Jariyah al-Ansari, from his uncle, from Anas, who attributed it to the Prophet with this wording.

I say: Thus, this route goes back to the first route, except that Isma‘il ibn ‘Ayyash narrated it with a continuous chain to the Prophet from Anas. This is one of his errors, for he is weak in his narrations from Medinans, as al-Bukhari and others stated, and Mujammi‘ was one of them. Al-Sakhawi then said: “There are also reports on this subject from Abu al-Tufayl, recorded by al-Tabarani and Ibn Lal, and from Suwayd ibn ‘Amir; some of them reinforce others.”

“Moisten”: that is, moisten them by maintaining ties with them. They use “moisture” to mean maintaining ties, just as they use “dryness” to mean severing them.

1778 — “Blessing is with your elders.”

It was recorded by Ibn Hibban (1912), Abu Bakr al-Shafi‘i in al-Fawa’id (97/1–2), Muhammad ibn Makhlad al-‘Attar in al-Muntaqa min Hadithihi (2/16/2), Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilyah (8/172), Ibn ‘Adi in al-Kamil (fol. 44/1), al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak (1/62) and in ‘Ulum al-Hadith (p. 48), al-Khatib in al-Tarikh (11/165), al-Quda‘i in Musnad al-Shihab (5/1), Ibn ‘Asakir in al-Tarikh (13/290/1 and 14/10/1), and al-Diya’ in al-Mukhtarah (64/35/2), through ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak, from Khalid al-Hadhdha’, from ‘Ikrimah, from Ibn ‘Abbas, with this wording.

Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the conditions of al-Bukhari.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him, and it is as they said. In al-Targhib (1/66), it is reported that he said, “According to the conditions of Muslim,” but this is an error. Ibn ‘Adi said: “It is narrated only from Ibn al-Mubarak, and its original form is mursal.”

I say: Ibn al-Mubarak was a trustworthy, precise authority, so it does not harm him that someone else narrated it as a mursal report. Moreover, it has a supporting report from the hadith of Anas, transmitted by Sa‘id ibn Bashir from Qatadah, from him, attributed to the Prophet with this wording.