Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, Abū Hurayrah, Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, Anas ibn Mālik, and al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib.
- As for the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd, Muḥammad ibn Sābiq narrated it from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Sinān, from Abū al-Aḥwaṣ, from him, attributed to the Prophet, and added “the Magnificent” in place of the ellipsis. Its discussion will follow.
Al-Ḥākim transmitted it (1/511) and said: “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.” Al-Mundhirī endorsed this in al-Targhīb (2/269), as did al-Dhahabī in al-Talkhīṣ, although he said: “I say: Abū Sinān is Ḍirār ibn Murrah, from whom al-Bukhārī did not narrate.” That is, he is among Muslim’s exclusive narrators, as al-Dhahabī said. He is trustworthy, as are the rest of its narrators. They are all biographied in al-Tahdhīb, except for al-Ḥākim’s teacher, Bakr ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣayrafī, who was al-Marwazī al-Dakhmasīnī—this being his epithet. He was a distinguished scholar and has a good biography in Ansāb al-Samʿānī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī described him in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ as a hadith scholar of Marw, and stated that he died in 345 AH.
His teacher in this hadith was biographied by al-Khaṭīb in Tārīkh Baghdād (4/250–251), citing a group of trustworthy hadith masters who narrated from him. He said: “He was trustworthy and reliable. He died in 279 AH.”
I later found that al-Ḥākim transmitted it elsewhere (2/117–118) through the route of Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Firyābī: “Isrāʾīl narrated to us,” with this chain, but without the wording “the Magnificent.” He said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, and al-Nawawī endorsed it in al-Riyāḍ (664/1882).