Elsewhere (4/274–275), he said: “Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Awsaṭ through two chains of transmission, one of which is good and strong; Abū Yaʿlā recorded it in abridged form, and al-Bazzār also recorded it. Its narrators are narrators of the authentic collections.”

I say: Al-Ṭabarānī’s chain includes Khālid ibn Makhlad al-Qaṭwānī. Although al-Bukhārī narrated from him, his retention was weak. He is the narrator of the hadith, “... Whoever shows hostility to a devoted servant of Mine ...,” which was cited earlier under no. 1640, together with an account of its supporting reports that strengthen it. In sum, the hadith is at least good when its two chains are considered together.

I then found another chain for it, recorded by Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (3/72–73), from Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Rabbih al-Jurjānī, who said: Al-Walīd narrated to us, from al-Awzāʿī, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Anas ibn Mālik, with this wording. He said: “It is singular among al-Awzāʿī’s reports from Yaḥyā as a connected report attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. We have recorded it only through this route, and it has been said that Yazīd alone narrated it.”

I say: He is trustworthy and among Muslim’s shaykhs, while those above him are trustworthy narrators from whom both al-Bukhārī and Muslim narrated. However, al-Walīd—namely Ibn Muslim—practised tadlīs al-taswiyah (a form of concealment in transmission), and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr saw Anas but was accused of concealment in transmission.

It has a third chain: Abū Yaʿlā (3/1046) said: Shaybān ibn Farrūkh narrated to us; al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn informed us; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥakam al-Banānī informed us, from Anas ibn Mālik, with this wording. It includes mention of the Day of Increase. This is a good chain: its narrators are trustworthy narrators from whom al-Bukhārī narrated, apart from al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn, from whom Muslim narrated and concerning whom there is some non-detrimental criticism. This addition has other chains as well, which Ibn al-Qayyim cited in Ḥādī al-Arwāḥ (2/101–108), some adding details not found in others. He then said: