“This is an authentic chain according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.

I say: This is open to criticism on two grounds:

First, al-Mughirah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman—namely, Ibn al-Harith ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Ayyash, Abu Hashim al-Madani—was not narrated from by Muslim.

Second, he is disputed; hence al-Dhahabi included him in al-Mizan and said: “Ibn Ma‘in and others declared him trustworthy, while Abu Dawud said: ‘His hadith is weak.’” Al-Hafiz said: “Truthful and a jurist, but he used to err.” I say: A hadith narrated by someone like him can be no more than good; it cannot be authentic. Majma‘ al-Zawa’id (10/135) states: “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir and al-Awsat. Its narrators are those of the authentic collections, apart from al-Mughirah ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman, who is trustworthy.”

2059 — “Whenever someone complained of a headache, he would say: ‘Go and have yourself cupped.’ Whenever someone complained of pain in his foot, he would say: ‘Go and dye it with henna.’”

Al-Suyuti cited it in this manner in al-Jami‘, as narrated by al-Tabarani from Salma, the wife of Abu Rafi‘. I say: This is a clear shortcoming, for the hadith appears in Ahmad’s Musnad (6/462): Abu Sa‘id, the freedman of Banu Hashim, narrated to us; ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Mawali narrated to us; Fa’id, the freedman of Banu Rafi‘, narrated to us from his paternal aunt Salma, who said: “No one ever complained to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, of a pain in his head without his saying: ‘Have yourself cupped’; nor did anyone complain...”