For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim held that it is strengthened by its various chains in Prophetic Guidance, and al-Shawkani followed him in Nayl al-Awtar (5/106–107, Halabi edition). As for the hadith, “The sacrificial animals may be slaughtered until the new moon of Muharram for whoever wishes to defer that,” it is a mursal report and is not authentic. I have discussed it in al-Daʿifah (4106).

2477 — “The shepherd performs the stoning at night and tends his flock by day.”

Al-Bayhaqi (5/151) narrated it from Ibn Wahb: ʿUmar ibn Qays informed me, from ʿAtaʾ ibn Abi Rabah, who said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbas say that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, said this.

I say: This is a very weak chain of transmission. ʿUmar ibn Qays—the Meccan known as Sandal—is abandoned, as stated in al-Taqrib. However, Ibn Wahb has another chain that is better and stronger than this. He said: Yahya ibn Ayyub informed me, from ʿImarah ibn Ghaziyyah, from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, from Abu Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, from the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording. Al-Bayhaqi narrated it.

I say: This is an authentic mursal chain of transmission; all its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of Muslim. It is further supported by what Muslim ibn Khalid narrated from ʿUbayd Allah, from Nafiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar: that the Prophet, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, granted the shepherds permission to perform the stoning at night. Al-Bazzar (1139) and al-Bayhaqi also narrated it.

I say: All the narrators in its chain are trustworthy narrators of Muslim, except Muslim ibn Khalid—the Meccan known as al-Zanji—who is truthful but frequently errs, as al-Hafiz said. He was also a well-known jurist.