even though no one other than Maʿmar narrated from him, as I mentioned in Taysīr Intifāʿ al-Khillān bi-Kitāb Thiqat Ibn Ḥibbān. There I established that several scribal corruptions occurred in Ibn Ḥibbān’s entry on this Saʿīd, including this attribution, al-Jaḥshī, which appears there as al-Ḥajabī. Likewise, it was corrupted in Shuʿab al-Īmān to al-Jarashī. This prevented me from identifying him when I cited this hadith as corroborating evidence under the preceding hadith (666). This was one reason for re-examining its sources and correcting its attribution, in addition to other benefits that will be mentioned, Allah willing.

His statement, “Abū Qatādah, I believe, used to comb it twice each day,” is not sound in my view: firstly, because of the narrator’s uncertainty in his words, “I believe”; and secondly, because the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is authentically reported to have prohibited combing one’s hair except every other day, as its documentation was given earlier under no. (501).

Likewise, what al-Nasāʾī recorded (5237), through ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Muqaddam, is not sound. He said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Abū Qatādah, who said: “He had a thick, abundant head of hair, so he asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and he instructed him to care for it well and to comb it every day.” I say: This is even more objectionable than the previous report, for it attributes combing every day to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This contradicts the authentic hadith to which I referred shortly before. Its defect is the break between Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir and Abū Qatādah, for he did not hear from him, as al-Ḥāfiẓ established in al-Tahdhīb. A second defect may also be identified: it is a mursal transmission. A third defect is concealment in transmission, for Ibn Muqaddam practiced an extraordinary form of concealment in transmission known among the scholars as “silent concealment.” See his biography in al-Tahdhīb.