What remains to be addressed is the break in the chain that al-Ḥākim pointed out and al-Dhahabī concurred with when he said, “provided it is free of the ‘sending’ (irṣāl) of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh from his father ….”

I say: It is indeed free of that, for the fact that he heard from his father is established by the testimony of a number of leading authorities—among them Sufyān al-Thawrī, Shurayk the judge, Ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, and Abū Ḥātim. Al-Bukhārī also narrated in al-Tārīkh al-Ṣaghīr, through a chain that is decent, from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from his father, who said:

“When ʿAbd Allāh was on his deathbed, his son ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said to him, ‘Father, give me admonition.’ He replied, ‘Weep over your sin.’”

Hence, after this, the word of anyone who denies that he heard from him is of no consequence, for such a person has no evidence beyond his own lack of knowledge of the hearing, whereas one who knows is a proof against one who is unaware.

Al-Haythamī said about the ḥadīth in al-Majmaʿ (10/136): “It was reported by Aḥmad, Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Ṭabarānī. The transmitters in Aḥmad’s chain are the men of the Ṣaḥīḥ except for Abū Salamah al-Juhanī, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy!”

I say: From the preceding investigation you have learned that he is trustworthy, included among Muslim’s narrators, and that his name is Mūsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh. Nor was he alone in transmitting this ḥadīth; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq also corroborated him, narrating it from al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd but without mentioning [transmission] from his father.

It was recorded by Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl ibn Ghazwān al-Ḍabbī in Kitāb al-Duʿāʾ (fol. 2/1–2) and by Ibn al-Sunnī in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa’l-Laylah (no. 335). As for ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq—he is Abū Shaybah al-Wāsiṭī—there is unanimous agreement that he is weak.