In addition, Abū Muḥammad al-ʿAdl al-Mukhaldi cites it in his al-Fawāʾid ⦗1/147/2; 2/223/2; 2/246/2; 2/268/2⦘, al-Ruyānī in his Musnad ⦗25/133/1⦘, al-Ḥākim ⦗1/493⦘, Abū Nuʿaym in Akhbār Iṣfahān ⦗2/60⦘, al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah ⦗4/81/2⦘, al-Quḍāʿī ⦗71/1⦘, and ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī in al-Duʿāʾ ⦗142–143⦘—all of them through a set of chains from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā, from Ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Thawbān as a marfūʿ report.

Some of the ḥadīth critics remark that “Ibn Abī al-Jaʿd” is left unnamed; others identify him as Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, while still others say he is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī al-Jaʿd.
• If the first view is correct, the isnād is interrupted, for Sālim never heard from Thawbān.
• If the second is correct, the narrator is unknown, as Ibn al-Qaṭṭān stated—even though Ibn Ḥibbān declared him reliable. Al-Dhahabī alluded to this in al-Mīzān, saying:
“Although this ʿAbd Allāh has been graded trustworthy, anonymity still clings to him.”

Al-Ruyānī then reproduced the ḥadīth ⦗162/1⦘ through the route of ʿUmar ibn Shabīb, who said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us from Ḥafṣ and ʿUbayd Allāh—the nephews of Sālim—from Sālim, from Thawbān,” adding the words:

“Indeed, it is written in the Torah: ‘O son of Adam, fear your Lord, be dutiful to your parents, and keep your ties of kinship; I shall prolong your lifespan, make what is easy even easier, and turn hardship away from you.’”

I say: This leans toward the ḥadīth’s originating with Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, but ʿUmar ibn Shabīb is weak, as the ḥāfiẓ states in al-Taqrīb. As for Ḥafṣ and ʿUbayd Allāh, the nephews of Sālim, I do not know who they are.

If the preference just mentioned is upheld, the chain remains interrupted; if not, it is continuous—yet it still contains an unknown narrator, as already noted. Hence al-Ḥākim’s declaration that the “chain of transmission is ṣaḥīḥ” is untenable, even though al-Dhahabī concurred with him, because the narrator in question is anonymous—and al-Dhahabī himself had explicitly affirmed that earlier. Such contradictions on his part are, alas, all too frequent!