“No one narrated it from Ayyub except al-Mughirah ibn Muslim, and no one narrated it from al-Mughirah except Shababah. Zakariyya ibn Yahya was alone in narrating it.” I say: He is an obscure narrator, whom al-Haythami did not identify. Thus, after citing the hadith (10/138), he said: “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsat, and its chain includes Zakariyya ibn Yahya ibn Ayyub al-Darir, whom I do not know; the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.” He said the same regarding other hadiths, including the hadith that follows this one.

However, he overlooked the fact that al-Khatib al-Baghdadi knew him, for he included his biography in Tarikh Baghdad (8/457–458), citing a number of trustworthy hadith memorizers who narrated from him, among them Yahya ibn Sa'id and Judge al-Muhamili. To these may be added the hadith memorizer Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Khaythamah, for al-Tabarani narrated other hadiths from him in al-Awsat, through this very Zakariyya. Their numbers therein are 5489, 5490, 5530, and 5536.

Scholars have customarily considered the hadiths of someone like him worthy of consideration, at least as corroborative evidence, when the narrators above and below him are trustworthy—as is the case with this hadith. For all those above him are trustworthy narrators included in al-Tahdhib, while Ibn Abi Khaythamah, who narrated from him, is a well-known and trustworthy hadith memorizer. He is therefore truthful.

I had previously cited this hadith through Abu Hurayrah, above under no. 602, with a chain containing some weakness, and I strengthened it through another route from Ibn Umar: al-Walid ibn Utbah, from Muhammad ibn Suqah, from Nafi', from him. When I came across this corroborating narration from al-Mughirah ibn Muslim, from Ayyub, from Nafi', I hastened to cite it here as further confirmation of the hadith’s authenticity. Allah is the Granter of success and guidance.

Then I found that Ibn al-Qattan had cited the hadith in his book al-Nazar fi Ahkam al-Nazar (fol. 72/1), saying: “Al-Bazzar said: Zakariyya ibn Yahya informed us of it.” Ibn al-Qattan said: “Al-Mughirah ibn Muslim is well-known and unobjectionable; thus, it is a good chain of transmission.”