I comment: This isnād consists of only three links, is authentic, and fulfils the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Imām Aḥmad also recorded it in al-Musnad (3/103) through Ibn Abī ʿAdī, in another place (3/114) through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and Ibn Ḥibbān (no. 786) related it through Ismāʿīl—all three of them reporting from Ḥumayd.

These two additional chains are likewise sound and three-tiered. In the version of Ibn Abī ʿAdī, after their words “during the Age of Ignorance” he adds: “and that pleased him.” Al-Nasāʾī (1/290) transmits the same wording through ʿAbdullāh—namely, Ibn al-Mubārak—from Ḥumayd with the phrase: “and he was delighted by that.”

Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd explicitly states that Ḥumayd related it to him from Anas.

Thābit also corroborates Ḥumayd’s narration. Imām Aḥmad records it (3/153, 175, 284) through Ḥammād, who said, “Thābit and Ḥumayd narrated to us from Anas,” adding: “The Prophet ﷺ was riding a dapple-gray mule. He came upon a grave whose occupant was being punished (in another version: he heard the voices of people being punished in their graves); the mule shied, whereupon the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Were it not that …’ ”—and so on. This chain is sound according to the criterion of Muslim.

Qāsim ibn Mirthad al-Riḥāl also provides supporting evidence. Imām Aḥmad says (3/111): “Sufyān narrated to us: Qāsim al-Riḥāl heard Anas say, ‘The Prophet ﷺ entered a deserted plot belonging to the Banū al-Najjār to relieve himself, then came out to us alarmed—or frightened—and said, ‘Were it not that …’ ” This version contains the two extra details just noted.

This, too, is a sound three-link chain: Sufyān is Ibn ʿUyaynah, one of the narrators relied upon by the Six Books, and Qāsim was declared trustworthy by Ibn Maʿīn and others.

Further corroboration comes from Qatādah on the authority of Anas—in the marfūʿ portion only, without the surrounding story—which is reported by Muslim (8/161) and Aḥmad (3/176, 273).