from Saʿīd ibn Samʿān, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah narrating to Abū Qatādah that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy, and all are among the narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim except Saʿīd ibn Samʿān, who is trustworthy, as stated in al-Taqrīb.

In al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, the hadith is attributed only to Ibn Abī Shaybah and Ibn ʿAsākir. In al-Fatḥ (3/461), al-Ḥāfiẓ confined himself to attributing it to Aḥmad and made no comment on it; thus, in his view, it is good or authentic. Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim!” Al-Dhahabī refuted him, saying: “I say: Neither of them included any report from Ibn Samʿān, and no one [other than] Ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrated from him; moreover, he has been criticized.”

I say: No one criticized him except al-Azdī. For this reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ rejected al-Azdī’s judgment in al-Taqrīb, stating: “Trustworthy; al-Azdī was mistaken in declaring him weak.” Al-Azdī was excessively strict in declaring narrators weak; al-Dhahabī himself pointed this out in some of the biographical notices. Ibn Samʿān was declared trustworthy by al-Nasāʾī, al-Dāraquṭnī, and Ibn Ḥibbān.

As for his statement, “Nor did Ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrate from him,” I believe that the words “other than” were omitted, either by his pen or by a copyist. For in al-Kāshif, he himself affirms that Ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrated from him, and even mentions another narrator alongside him!

It has also been narrated from Abū Hurayrah through two other chains, in an abbreviated form, as a prophetic report: “Dhu al-Suwayqatayn (the thin-legged man) from Abyssinia will destroy the Kaʿbah.” The first route is from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from him. It was related by al-Bukhārī (1596), Muslim (8/183), Aḥmad (2/310), al-Dānī in al-Fitan (folio 69/2), Ibn Abī Shaybah (15/47), and al-Azraqī (1/276).