but al-Dāraquṭnī distinguished between them, saying of the first: “He fabricates hadith,” and of the other: “Weak.” Al-Dhahabī and al-ʿAsqalānī followed him in this and likewise distinguished between them. And Allah knows best.

The fifth route: Al-Ṭabarānī also recorded it, and Abū Nuʿaym narrated it from him in al-Ḥilyah (2/34): Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Nawfalī al-Madanī narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah al-Zubayrī informed us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad al-Darāwardī informed us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, who said:

“ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) summoned ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and spoke privately with him. Then ʿAlī went to the covered platform, where he found al-ʿAbbās, ʿAqīl, and al-Ḥusayn. He consulted them about giving Umm Kulthūm in marriage to ʿUmar. ʿAqīl became angry and said: ‘O ʿAlī, the passing of days, months, and years only increases your blindness concerning your affairs. By Allah, if you do it, this will surely happen and that will surely happen’”—and he listed a number of things. Then he departed, dragging his garment behind him. ʿAlī said to al-ʿAbbās: ‘By Allah, this was not sincere advice on his part; rather, ʿUmar’s whip drove him to the position you see. By Allah, O ʿAqīl, this is not out of any desire for you; rather, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) informed me that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: ...’” He then cited the hadith.

This chain of transmission consists entirely of trustworthy narrators who are narrators of al-Ṣaḥīḥ, apart from al-Nawfalī, al-Ṭabarānī’s shaykh, for whom I could find no biographical entry. Ibn Shāhīn also transmitted the portion attributed to the Prophet in al-Afrād (2/1), through Salamah ibn Shabīb, who said: al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aʿyan informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zayd ibn Aslam informed us, from his father, with it. He said: “Salamah ibn Shabīb is alone in narrating this hadith; I know of no one else who narrated it.”

I say: He is trustworthy and one of Muslim’s shaykhs, but his shaykh, al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Aʿyan, I have not—