I say: This chain of transmission is weak, for Ibn Abi Maryam had suffered deterioration of memory. Baqiyyah also practised tadlis, but he was corroborated by Abd al-Quddus ibn al-Hajjaj Abu al-Mughirah, who narrated it from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam. Al-Bazzar recorded it (p. 84, in his supplementary material) and said: “We know of no report from al-Irbad with a better chain of transmission than this.” This subtly indicates that there is another chain from him. I found it in Ibn Hibban (706, Mawarid al-Zam'an), through Luqman ibn Amir, from Yazid ibn Jubalah, from al-Irbad, with the same wording.

I did not know Yazid ibn Jubalah. Then I discovered that this was a textual corruption of Suwayd ibn Jubalah; it appears correctly in al-Ihsan bi-Tartib Sahih Ibn Hibban (2920), as one of the brothers pointed out to me. Ibn Hibban deemed him trustworthy (4/325), and two trustworthy narrators reported from him. The rest of its narrators are trustworthy. Thus, when its two chains are taken together, the hadith is good—especially since it has many corroborating reports with similar wording, which may be found in al-Targhib, al-Majma', and other works.

“His precious one” refers to his eye.

2011 — “Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: ‘O son of Adam, if you remember Me in private, I remember you in private; and if you remember Me in an assembly, I remember you in an assembly better than the one in which you remember Me.’”

Al-Bazzar recorded it in his Musnad (p. 295, in his supplementary material): Bishr ibn Mu'adh narrated to us; Fudayl ibn Sulayman narrated to us, from Abd Allah Uthman ibn Khuthaym, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him,