The fifth: al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was a man of medium height …” The hadith. Al-Tirmidhī recorded it in al-Shamāʾil (p. 13), as did Abū Yaʿlā (2/478).

2054 — “Green was the color most beloved to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.”

Al-Bazzār recorded it in his Musnad (p. 171, in its supplementary material), through Suwayd, from Qatādah, from Anas, who related it. He said: “We know of no one who narrated it from Qatādah, from Anas, except Suwayd Abū Ḥātim.”

I say: He is truthful but has poor retention and makes errors. However, he was corroborated, for Ibn Jurayj said: “Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī informed me from Qatādah, who said: ‘We went out with Anas to a tract of land called al-Zāwiyah. Ḥanẓalah al-Sadūsī said: “How beautiful this greenery is!” Anas replied: “We used to say that green was the color most beloved to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”’” Al-Bayhaqī recorded it in al-Shuʿab (2/248/1).

I say: Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī is abandoned as a hadith narrator. Yet it appears that he too was corroborated. Al-Haythamī said after citing the hadith (5/129): “Al-Bazzār and al-Ṭabarānī, in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ, narrated it, and al-Ṭabarānī’s narrators are reliable.” This explicitly indicates that al-Ṭabarānī’s narrators differ from al-Bazzār’s and that they are reliable. It is exceedingly unlikely that he would say this while al-Hudhalī was among them. Thus, al-Ṭabarānī must have narrated it by a route other than that of al-Hudhalī and Suwayd Abū Ḥātim. If so, then the hadith is good by virtue of this corroboration. And Allah knows best.

I then confirmed what I had considered unlikely, for I found the hadith in al-Ṭabarānī’s al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ.