I say: This is more correct, if Allah Most High wills.

The second is from Umm Musa, who said: “I heard ʿAli, may Allah be pleased with him, say: The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered Ibn Masʿud to climb a tree and bring him something from it. His Companions then looked at ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud’s shin…” the hadith.

It was recorded by Ahmad (1/114), Ibn Saʿd, Ibn Jarir (162/19 and 20), Abu Yaʿla (1/409 and 446), and, through him, al-Diyaʾ (2/421); Ibn Abi ʿAsim in al-Wuhdan (folio 21/2); and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (9/97/8516). Ibn Jarir said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.”

I say: Perhaps he meant that it is authentic in light of the two preceding corroborating reports; otherwise, he himself identified two defects in it, one of which is disqualifying. He said: “The second is that Umm Musa is unknown among the transmitters of knowledge. No narrator is known to have transmitted from her other than Mughira. A proof in religious matters cannot be established through an unknown male narrator, so how then through an unknown woman?!”

I say: This is a valuable point omitted by the biographical works on narrators: this imam explicitly states that this Umm Musa is unknown. Yet al-Tahdhib states: “Mughira ibn Miqsam al-Dabbi transmitted from her. Al-Daraqutni said: ‘Her hadith is sound, and her reports may be included for corroborative purposes.’ Al-ʿIjli said: ‘A Kufan female Successor, trustworthy.’”

I say: This declaration of her trustworthiness is not reliable, because she has the status of an unknown narrator whose identity is not known. It follows Ibn Hibban’s well-known method of declaring unknown narrators trustworthy. Al-ʿIjli is al-Haythami’s principal authority for declaring her trustworthy, as he says in al-Majmaʿ (9/288–289):