authentic in his book, which he entitled al-Kanz al-Thamin (“The Precious Treasure”). I have critically examined many of its hadiths and demonstrated their weakness, as well as the fabrication of some of them, in the aforementioned volume of al-Da‘ifah, under nos. 5532, 5533, 5534, 5535, 5536, 5537, 5538, and 5539. There are further examples elsewhere as well. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

I have already explained to you that the hadith’s chain of transmission is authentic, since it has come through authentic routes from Subayʿ; because he is trustworthy; because Abu ʿAwanah likewise deemed it authentic by including it in his Sahih, which is his collection of independently transmitted routes to Sahih Muslim; and because al-Hakim and al-Dhahabi also declared it authentic. I objected to al-Hafiz’s designation of him as “acceptable” only because he means that he is acceptable when corroborated; otherwise, he is weak in hadith according to him, as he explicitly states in the introduction to al-Taqrib.

Yet it seems that he did not remain settled upon this view, for I found him in Fath al-Bari (13/35–36) mentioning several passages from this route that are not found in any other. This indicates that Subayʿ was not weak in hadith in his estimation, for his principle was not to remain silent regarding a weak narrator. And Allah knows best.

I say: This route also contains the other additions and narrations to which I referred by saying, “And in one route ...,” which were not mentioned in the preceding routes and are distributed among their respective collectors. It also contains the third addition. In some routes there is a rejected narration with the wording, “Allah’s caliph on earth.” Discussion of it has preceded under the hadith of Sakhr ibn Badr from Subayʿ, no. 1791.

The fourth: from Humayd ibn Hilal, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Qirt, from Hudhayfah, in abbreviated form. Al-Nasa’i recorded it in al-Sunan al-Kubra (5/18/8033), as did Ibn Majah (2/476) and al-Hakim (4/432), through Abu ʿAmir Salih ibn Rustam, from Humayd ibn Hilal, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Qirt, from Hudhayfah. Al-Hakim said, “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him!