I say: He is Saʿid ibn Yahya ibn Saʿid ibn Aban al-Umawi of Baghdad, a trustworthy narrator used by both al-Bukhari and Muslim. His uncle, ʿAnbasah ibn Saʿid, was declared trustworthy by al-Daraqutni, and Ibn Hibban included him in al-Thiqat (The Trustworthy Narrators). Those above him in the chain are trustworthy narrators used by both al-Bukhari and Muslim, apart from ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym, who is nevertheless trustworthy. As for ʿAli ibn Saʿid, he is the hadith master al-Razi, concerning whom there is disagreement. The conclusion drawn from the scholars’ statements about him is that his hadith are good, unless he contradicts others. Hence al-Mundhiri said in al-Targhib (2/194): “Al-Tabarani reported it with a good chain of transmission.”

Al-Haythami said in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (5/292): “Al-Tabarani reported it in al-Awsat through ʿAnbasah ibn Saʿid ibn Aban. Al-Daraqutni declared him trustworthy, as al-Dhahabi related, and no one declared him weak. The rest of its narrators are narrators of the Sahih.” This is what he said; yet ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym is not among the narrators of the Sahih, as noted above.

The hadith also has a corroborating report from the hadith of Nuʿaym ibn Hammar, attributed to the Prophet with the same wording. It was reported by Ahmad (5/287), as well as Saʿid ibn Mansur in his Sunan (2566), al-Bukhari in al-Tarikh al-Kabir (4/2/95), al-Bayhaqi in al-Asmaʾ wa al-Sifat (472), Abu Yaʿla (4/1626), Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Maqdisi in Fadl al-Jihad (folio 115/2), Ibn Abi ʿAsim in al-Jihad (94/1), and al-Tabarani in Musnad al-Shamiyyin (pp. 234 and 235), through the route of Ismaʿil ibn ʿAyyash, from Buhayr ibn Saʿd, from Khalid ibn Maʿdan, from Kathir ibn Murrah, from him. I say: This is an authentic, continuous Syrian chain of transmission.

Al-Mundhiri (2/193) said—and al-Haythami (5/292) followed him: