via the route of Hushaym and others, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar. Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith differed from him in a manner that does not impair the authenticity of its text, as explained earlier under no. 1929. Its documentation has been repeated here, and that is not without benefit.

2505 — “A man will intercede for two or three men, and a man for one man.”

Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it in al-Tawḥīd (p. 205): Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us, from Maʿmar, who said: Thābit al-Bunānī informed me that he heard Anas ibn Mālik say: The Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, said … and he mentioned it.

Al-Bazzār also recorded it (3473—Kashf) through two other routes from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, without the final sentence. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs. Al-Mundhirī cited it in al-Targhīb (4/220), followed by al-Haythamī in al-Majmaʿ (10/382), on the authority of al-Bazzār (3473—Kashf al-Astār), and both said: “Its narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

I say: It also has a corroborating report narrated by ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, attributed to the Prophet with the same wording. Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it (p. 670), as did Aḥmad (3/20 and 63). ʿAṭiyyah is weak, as is well known.