al-Samt (Silence) (2/14/2 and 4/40/2), through several chains from Kathir ibn Zayd, who said: I heard Salim narrating from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and he mentioned it.

Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, singular hadith.” Al-Hakim said: “A number of leading scholars transmitted this hadith with a connected chain from Kathir ibn Zayd, while Hammad ibn Zayd alone reported it from him as a statement of Ibn Umar. As for al-Bukhari and Muslim, neither of them transmitted from Kathir ibn Zayd. He was a Medinan narrator of the Aslam tribe, whose kunyah was Abu Muhammad. I know of no criticism of him as a narrator; they only omitted him because of the small number of his hadiths.”

This is what he said. However, the hadith authorities did assess him: some declared him reliable, some weakened him, and some considered him acceptable—the latter being the preponderant view. Their statements concerning him may be found in al-Tahdhib, and al-Hafiz summarized them by saying: “Truthful, but makes mistakes.” In his terminology, this means that his hadith is good, or close to good.

Furthermore, al-Hakim added in his version: “Salim said: I never heard Ibn Umar curse anything at all.” It is also recorded by al-Bukhari with the addition, “except a human being,” while Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s wording is: “except one person.” Ibn Abi al-Dunya also records this with the wording, “except once.” This is clarified by al-Zuhri’s narration from Salim, who said: “I never heard Ibn Umar curse a servant except on one occasion, when he became angry with one of his”