whereas Ibn Lahi‘ah, ‘Amr ibn al-Harith, and al-Layth ibn Sa‘d differed from them, saying: “You have done right,” without saying, “the sunnah.”

I say: There is no doubt that the correct chain of transmission includes al-Balawi, since the five trustworthy narrators agree upon this, as you have seen. As for the text of the hadith, the correct reading is to retain the word “sunnah,” for several reasons:

First, although those who omit it and those who affirm it are equal in number, preference is given to those who affirm it, in accordance with the well-known principle: “The addition of a trustworthy narrator is accepted.”

Second, all those who affirm it are trustworthy narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs, unlike the former group, which includes Ibn Lahi‘ah, who was not among their narrators because of the well-known criticism concerning him.

Third, another trustworthy narrator, Musa ibn ‘Ali ibn Rabah, affirmed this addition, as in the first narration, and there is no disagreement concerning it. It is therefore certainly the stronger report, even if the narration of the trustworthy narrators from Yazid ibn Abi Habib were considered stronger, since it revolves around al-Balawi, whom you have already seen to be unknown and thus not admissible as evidence.

Ibn Hazm declared it defective in al-Muhalla (2/92–93) on account of this unknown status. The first route escaped him, so he deemed the hadith weak at its very root and was mistaken. It appears that he did not come across it, and that is no wonder. What is surprising, however, is what al-Daraqutni said in al-‘Ilal. After mentioning this authentic narration, he said: “Al-Mufaddal ibn Fadalah and Ibn Lahi‘ah corroborated him, narrating from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Hakam al-Balawi, from ‘Ali ibn Rabah. They said in it: ‘You have acted in accordance with the sunnah.’ But ‘Amr ibn al-Harith, Yahya ibn Ayyub, and al-Layth ibn Sa‘d differed from them, saying in it: ‘Then ‘Umar said: You have done right,’ without saying, ‘the sunnah.’ This is the preserved wording.” (1)