Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zurayq al-Ḥimṣī narrated to me: “My grandfather, Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, narrated to me: My uncle, al-Ḥārith ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, narrated to me: Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir narrated to me. He said: I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir narrating from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, attributing it to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in a hadith that began: ‘The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked, “When during the night is one most likely to be heard?” ...’”

Al-Mundhirī said (3/62): “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and there is no objection to its transmitters, except that Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān did not hear from his father.” Al-Haythamī said something similar (4/243): “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it. Abū Salamah did not hear from his father, while the hadiths of the rest of its narrators are good.” Even less tenable is the statement of the aforementioned al-Ḥāfiẓ: “Its narrators are trustworthy!”

I say: This is open to criticism on several grounds: 1. The break in the chain, explicitly stated by al-Mundhirī and then al-Haythamī, and transmitted by al-Ḥāfiẓ in al-Tahdhīb from a number of the earlier imams, such as Aḥmad and others. 2. I have not been able to identify al-Ḥārith ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, nor have I found anyone who provided a biographical entry for him—not even Ibn ʿAsākir in Tārīkh Dimashq. Indeed, neither he nor al-Mizzī mentioned him among the teachers of his nephew, Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk. 3. I have likewise found no biographical entry for ʿAmr ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, not even in al-Tārīkh; he is mentioned there only among those who narrated from his grandfather, Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ.