Ahmad recorded it (4/371).

This Abu Ayyub is the same al-Hajjaj mentioned in the preceding route. His father’s name was Ayyub, as stated in Taʿjil al-Manfaʿah, which also notes that his status is unknown. Sufyan al-Thawri differed from them, narrating: from Ziyad ibn ʿAlaqah, from al-Mughirah ibn Shuʿbah, who said—and then cited the hadith as attributed to the Prophet, making it a report on the authority of al-Mughirah. Ahmad (4/252), al-Tirmidhi (1983), and Ibn Hibban (1987) recorded it.

In one version recorded by Ahmad through ʿAbd al-Rahman: Sufyan narrated to us from Ziyad ibn ʿAlaqah, who said: “I heard a man in the presence of al-Mughirah ibn Shuʿbah say”—then he cited it as attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Do not revile the dead, lest you hurt the living.”

Thus, there is considerable discrepancy in the transmissions from Ziyad ibn ʿAlaqah, which may be summarized as follows: 1. From him, from his uncle Qutbah ibn Malik, from Zayd ibn Arqam, attributed to the Prophet. 2. From him, from al-Mughirah ibn Shuʿbah, attributed to the Prophet. 3. From him, from a man, attributed to the Prophet. The first route is perhaps the strongest, since it accords with the preferred of the two transmissions of al-Hajjaj ibn Ayyub, from Qutbah ibn Malik, from Zayd. You have already seen that its chain is authentic.

It also has a corroborating report from the hadith of Aishah, recorded by al-Bukhari and others; it has been fully referenced in al-Rawd al-Nadir (1/437). A second corroborating report is from Ibn Abbas, though its chain is weak, as I explained in Takhrij al-Targhib (4/175). A third is likewise from the hadith of Aishah, recorded by Abu Nuʿaym in al-Hilyah (10/395).