“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr, and its narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections.” Thus, this is in line with his usual practice: in making such a statement, he does not take into account any narrator occurring before one of Muslim’s teachers in the Ṣaḥīḥ within the hadith’s chain—here, ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah. The laxity involved in this is obvious.

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Sāmī differed from him, saying: “Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Thumāmah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Anas, from Anas, with the same report.” Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Awsaṭ (1/82/1), Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (folio 48/2), and al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Mukhtārah (70/1). He said: “Abū Salamah Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated it from Ḥammād, from Thumāmah, directly from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. It is mursal. I say: More than one narrator reported it with a continuous chain, as we have cited it, among them al-Muʾammal ibn Ismāʿīl and al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār. And Allah knows best.”

He then said: “Al-Dāraquṭnī said: Ḥarmī ibn ʿUmārah and Saʿīd ibn ʿĀṣim al-Mulaḥḥī—a Basran shaykh—narrated it from Ḥammād, from Thumāmah, from Anas. Wakīʿ and Abū ʿAmr al-Ḥawḍī differed from them, reporting it from Ḥammād, from Thumāmah as mursal; and that is the correct version.”

That is what he said. Yet Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Sāmī—who is trustworthy—corroborates those just mentioned, which strengthens the connected transmission. And Allah knows best.

Perhaps this narration of Thumāmah from Anas is more likely than his narration from al-Barāʾ. Ibn ʿAdī said: “I hope that there is no objection to Thumāmah ibn ʿAbd Allāh. His hadiths closely resemble those of other narrators, and, in my view, he is acceptable in what he narrates from Anas.” I say: Both Shaykhs, as well as others, relied on him as an authority; and Aḥmad, al-Nasāʾī, and others declared him trustworthy. Ḥammād ibn Salamah is trustworthy and is among Muslim’s narrators. And Allah knows best.