“Al-Bazzār and al-Ṭabarānī, in al-Awsaṭ, narrated it. The transmitters in al-Ṭabarānī’s chain are transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ, apart from al-Haytham ibn Jamīl, who is trustworthy; and al-Ṭabarānī’s teacher, Aḥmad ibn Masʿūd al-Khayyāṭ al-Maqdisī, is not mentioned in al-Mīzān.”

I say: This indicates that he regarded it as acceptable. A number of trustworthy narrators corroborated him, among them Imam Aḥmad, as mentioned above. ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Ishbīlī also deemed the hadith strong in al-Aḥkām. Some of the early generations held that it should be acted upon. Ibn Abī Shaybah narrated in al-Muṣannaf (8/235–236) from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, who said: “If I knew that no ʿaqīqah (birth sacrifice) had been offered on my behalf, I would offer one for myself.”

Its chain of transmission is authentic if Ashʿath, who narrated it from Ibn Sīrīn, is Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥaddānī or Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Ḥumrānī, for both were trustworthy Basrans. But if he is Ibn Sawwār al-Kūfī, then he is weak. All three narrated from Ibn Sīrīn, and Ḥafṣ—namely Ibn Ghiyāth—narrated from them; he is the one who narrated this report from Ashʿath.

Ibn Ḥazm mentioned in al-Muḥallā (8/322), through the route of al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣubayḥ, from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī: “If no ʿaqīqah was offered on your behalf, then offer one for yourself, even if you are a man.” This is a good chain of transmission.

2727 — “Whoever says, ‘I seek Allah’s forgiveness ... besides Whom there is no deity worthy of worship, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer, and I repent to Him,’ three times, his sins will be forgiven, even if he fled from the battlefield.”

It has been narrated on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, Zayd, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and Abū