“These are chains of transmission that suffice to establish the authenticity of this ḥadith,” and al-Dhahabī concurred.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in Takhrīj al-Kashshāf (p. 63): “Its chain is good.”

I say: The only reason he did not pronounce it authentic is that no one besides al-ʿAjlī and Ibn Ḥibbān declared Azhar ibn ʿAbd Allāh reliable. When al-Ḥāfiẓ, in al-Tahdhīb, cited al-Azdī’s remark, “People have spoken against him,” he countered by saying, “They criticised nothing but his doctrinal leaning.” Accordingly, he writes in al-Taqrīb: “Truthful; he was spoken against for nasb (hostility toward the Household of ʿAlī).”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr reproduced the ḥadith in his Tafsīr (1/390) by way of Aḥmad, without commenting on its chain, yet he hinted at its strength, saying: “This ḥadith has been transmitted through several routes.”

Hence Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah declared in al-Masāʾil (83/2): “It is an authentic, well-known ḥadith.” Al-Shāṭibī likewise graded it authentic in al-Iʿtiṣām (3/38).

Among the routes to which Ibn Kathīr alluded—routes that include the additional wording—are those mentioned by al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī in Takhrīj al-Iḥyāʾ (3/199): “Al-Tirmidhī narrated it from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr and deemed it good; Abū Dāwūd narrated it from Muʿāwiyah; and Ibn Mājah narrated it from Anas and ʿAwf ibn Mālik, and their chains are first-rate.”

I add: The ḥadith of Anas alone has a very large number of routes—seven of them have reached me—and in all of them