Al-Bayhaqī also narrated it through this route in al-Zuhd (108/1), and said: “ʿUthmān would sometimes attribute it to the Prophet, and at other times would not.” That is, ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar would sometimes attribute it to the Prophet and sometimes relate it as attributed to the Companion. There is no doubt that attribution to the Prophet is more weighty, for two reasons:

First, it contains an additional detail, and such an addition is accepted when it comes from a trustworthy narrator such as this ʿUthmān ibn ʿUmar—namely, Ibn Fāris al-ʿAbdī—for he is trustworthy and among the narrators of both Ṣaḥīḥs. A narrator may be more attentive at one time and thus attribute a hadith to the Prophet, while at another time he may not be as attentive and so relate it as attributed to the Companion.

Second, another narrator also transmitted it as attributed to the Prophet: al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl, who said: “Shuʿbah narrated it to us through this chain.” Al-Bayhaqī recorded it. Al-Naḍr too is a trustworthy and precise narrator from among the narrators of both Ṣaḥīḥs. It is true that ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated it differently: “Shuʿbah informed us of it,” attributing it to the Companion. Al-Baghawī recorded this in Ḥadīth ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd (8/76/1). The answer is that attribution to the Prophet is an addition from a trustworthy narrator and must therefore be accepted, as stated above.

This is especially so since Shuʿbah’s attribution of it to the Prophet was corroborated: ʿUthmān ibn Wāqid al-ʿUmarī narrated from his father, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, attributing to the Prophet a report similar to it. Ibn Ḥibbān (1542), al-Quḍāʿī (42/2), Mushriq ibn ʿAbd Allāh in Ḥadīthuhu (61/2), and Ibn ʿAsākir (15/278/1) recorded it. I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of both Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from ʿUthmān ibn Wāqid, who is truthful but sometimes erred, as al-Ḥāfiẓ said. Hishām ibn ʿUrwah also narrated it from his father, attributing it to the Prophet, but with the wording: “Whoever seeks people’s praise through disobedience to Allah, his praiser will become one who censures him.”