“Its chain of transmission is authentic according to al-Bukhari’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabi concurred.

I say: It is as they both said. ʿAbd al-Karīm is Ibn Mālik al-Jazarī al-Ḥarrānī, who is trustworthy; he is not ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abī al-Mukhāriq al-Baṣrī, who is weak. Although the latter also narrated from ʿIkrimah, he was not among the teachers of ʿUbayd Allāh al-Raqqī.

This hadith contains an important benefit: it explains the prohibition of travelling alone by a rationale whose underlying meaning is not rationally discernible—contrary to what I had quoted from al-Ṭabarī under hadith no. 62. Take note.

2659 — “You will surely fight him while wronging him”—meaning al-Zubayr and ʿAlī, may Allah be pleased with them both.

Al-Ḥākim related it (3/366) through Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ajlaḥ, who said: My father told me from Yazīd al-Faqīr. Minjāb said: I also heard Faḍl ibn Faḍālah narrate all of it from Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad, who said:

“I witnessed ʿAlī and al-Zubayr when al-Zubayr turned back on his mount, making his way through the ranks. His son ʿAbd Allāh confronted him and asked, ‘What is the matter with you?’ He replied, ‘ʿAlī reminded me of a hadith which he heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: …’—and he mentioned it—‘so I will not fight him.’

He said, ‘And was it for fighting that you came? You came only to reconcile the people, and Allah might set this affair right through you.’ He replied, ‘I have sworn not to fight.’ He said, ‘Then free your slave Jirjis, and remain until you reconcile the people.’ So he freed his slave Jirjis and remained; then the people’s situation became confused, and he departed on his horse.”

I say: This chain is good by the first route, and authentic by the other route, if the integrity of Faḍl ibn Faḍālah is established, for I have not found a biographical entry for him. I do not consider it unlikely that he was Fudayl ibn Faḍālah al-Hawzānī al-Shāmī, whose name was corrupted by the copyist. He was truthful, a number of narrators reported from him, Ibn Ḥibbān listed him among the trustworthy narrators, and he is among the narrators included in al-Tahdhīb. Or perhaps he was