Then I later found that Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Anṣārī also narrated the ḥadīth in his work “Sitta Majālis” (fol. 8/1) through the route of Imām Aḥmad. Its editor, the ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir Abū al-Faḍl al-Baghdādī, said:
“This is a ḥasan ḥadīth with a lofty chain, and its narrators are trustworthy.”

The ḥadīth has further support in the narration of Fayāḍ from ʿAbdullāh ibn Zubayd from Abū Mūsā — may Allah be pleased with him — who said: “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless and grant him peace) said …,” and he related it in similar wording.

Ibn al-Sunnī recorded this corroborating report (no. 343) with a sound chain up to Fayāḍ, who is Ibn Ghazwān al-Ḍabbī al-Kūfī; Aḥmad declared him trustworthy. Fayāḍ’s shaykh, ʿAbdullāh ibn Zubayd, is Ibn al-Ḥārith al-Yāmī al-Kūfī.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim quotes his father (2/2/62) as saying, “The Kūfans narrated from him,” without recording any jarḥ (criticism) or taʿdīl (accreditation) concerning him.

I say: He is therefore mastūr (of concealed status), and the likes of him may be cited for corroboration, Allah willing.

Al-Haythamī commented on the ḥadīth: “It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī, and in its chain is someone I do not know.”

I say: He most likely refers to ʿAbdullāh ibn Zubayd; thus it appears he did not consult the entry on him in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl. Even though that work gives neither praise nor disparagement, the accepted practice is not to say of such a narrator, “I do not know him,” as is well understood by those engaged in this noble science.

Note: A glaring error occurs in the margin of al-Majmaʿ in its comment on the ḥadīth, where it states: