and on the day of Khaybar and the day of Qurayzah, he rode a donkey whose halter was a rope of palm fiber, with a saddle-pad of palm fiber beneath him.”

It was narrated by al-Tayalisi (2425 in its arrangement), al-Tirmidhi (1017), Ibn Majah (2/545), and al-Hakim, who said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him. Al-Tirmidhi, however, said—and he was correct: “We know this hadith only through the narration of Muslim al-A‘war—namely, Muslim ibn Kaysan—and he is deemed weak.” Al-Hafiz said of him: “Weak.” Indeed, al-Dhahabi himself stated in Weak Narrators and elsewhere: “They abandoned him.”

A better supporting report is the hadith of Simak ibn Harb: “I heard ‘Abbad ibn Zahir Abu al-Rawa‘ say: I heard ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan say: ‘We accompanied the Messenger of Allah ﷺ both in travel and at home, and he would visit sick Muslims and attend their funerals—or,” he said, “follow their funerals.’”

Al-Bazzar narrated it (1/388/819) and said: “We know it from ‘Uthman only through this chain of transmission. We know of no narration from ‘Abbad other than this, nor of anyone who narrated from him other than Simak.” Al-Hafiz said immediately afterward in his Supplemental Material (p. 89): “I say: His status is unknown, though Ibn Hibban included him among the reliable narrators, in accordance with his usual practice.”

I say: Abu Ishaq al-Hamadani also narrated from him, as recorded in Narrator Criticism and Accreditation (3/1/80). It states: “My father was asked about him, and he replied: ‘A shaykh.’” Al-Haythami said in Majma‘ al-Zawa’id (3/29), and al-A‘zami followed him in his annotation to