(1/329), Ibn Majah (3572), through Abu al-Ahwas; and Ibn Hibban (1447) and Ahmad (5/382 and 400–401), from Sufyan, from Abu Ishaq, from Muslim ibn Nadhir, from Hudhayfah, with the same report. Zayd ibn Abi Unaysah also corroborated them in Ibn Hibban (1448).

Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, authentic hadith. Al-Thawri and Shu‘bah narrated it from Abu Ishaq.” I say: It is as though, by noting that both of them narrated the hadith from him, he indicates that it is free from the defect of Abu Ishaq’s confusion in his later years—for, as they have explicitly stated, they narrated from him before his confusion. I recall al-Hafiz also saying that al-A‘mash was likewise so, for he preceded them both: he died in 148 AH, while Shu‘bah died in 160 AH and Sufyan a year after him. Indeed, Abu Ishaq was one of their shaykhs. Muslim also narrated from al-Subay‘i, as stated in Tahdhib al-Mizzi.

It remains that Abu Ishaq was also accused of concealment in transmission, and here he used an ambiguous transmission formula. This may be answered in two ways. First, Shu‘bah would not narrate from him anything in which he had not explicitly stated that he heard it. Second, he did in fact explicitly state this. Ahmad said (5/396): “Affan narrated to us; Shu‘bah narrated to us, from Abu Ishaq, who said: I heard Muslim ibn Nadhir [narrate] it.” Al-Tayalisi likewise transmitted it in his Musnad (445): “Shu‘bah narrated to us,” with the same report, except that it reads “Muslim ibn Quraysh,” which is perhaps a typographical error.

Note: What appears between the square brackets in the hadith under discussion is omitted from the Musnad. It is an addition required by the context; without it, the intended meaning of his statement, “Then he placed it beneath the second,” is not apparent, as is clear. I have supplied it from Majma‘ al-Zawa’id and Ibn Kathir’s Jami‘ al-Masanid (10/90).