Then al-Ṭabarānī’s al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr was published, and I found that it contains the hadith through two chains of transmission from Baqiyyah. In one of them, he explicitly states direct transmission, saying (8/122/7499): “Abū Yazīd Yūsuf ibn Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī narrated to us; al-Muʿallā ibn al-Walīd al-Qaʿqāʿī narrated to us; Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Ziyād narrated to us …” with the other wording.

I say: The narrators in this chain are trustworthy, apart from this al-Qaʿqāʿī. No one other than Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy (9/182), yet Ibn Ḥibbān nevertheless said of him: “He may sometimes narrate odd reports.” He then said (7655): “Aḥmad ibn Khulayd al-Ḥalabī narrated to us; ʿUbayd ibn Junād narrated to us; Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Ziyād,” with the same report.

I say: The narrators of this chain are likewise trustworthy, apart from this Aḥmad, for I have not found a biographical entry for him. If this wording is authentic, it may be reconciled with the first wording along these lines: “His heart softens toward me, and my heart softens toward him.” And Allah knows best.

2471 — “Everything has a reality, and no servant attains the reality of faith until he knows that what struck him could not have missed him, and what missed him could not have struck him.”

Aḥmad (6/441–442), al-Bazzār (8, al-Zawāʾid), al-Quḍāʿī (75/1), and Ibn ʿAsākir (4/332/1) transmitted it through Abū al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān ibn ʿUtbah al-Sulamī, from Yūnus ibn Maysarah, from Abū Idrīs, from Abū al-Dardāʾ, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said it.

Al-Bazzār said: “Its chain of transmission is good.” It is as he said, or even better, for all its narrators are trustworthy and free of criticism, apart from Sulaymān ibn ʿUtbah. A number of scholars declared him trustworthy, and the criticism made of him carries no weight.