It was also recorded by Aḥmad (2/220), and its chain is good.

Third chain: al-Ḥasan related from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr who said, “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to me:

‘How will you be when you are left among the dregs of people?’

I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, how will that be?’ He replied, ‘When their covenants and trusts are compromised…’” —the remainder of the report is identical.

Aḥmad recorded it (2/162). Its narrators are trustworthy, all of them being found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, except that there is disagreement over whether al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī actually heard from Ibn ʿAmr. Either way, al-Ḥasan was practising tadlīs and he transmitted it with the ambiguous “from” (ʿan) formula.

It is noteworthy that none of these three chains contains the extra phrase found in the preceding route — “Stay in your house and keep control of your tongue.” The preponderant view is that this is an anomalous addition, because the sole narrator of it, Hilāl ibn Khabbāb, has already been criticised; hence his report is not accepted when it contradicts reliable transmitters.

True, the same addition occurs in a hadith of Abū Thaʿlabah al-Khushani on this topic, but its chain is unsound, as I clarified in the entry numbered a little over one thousand in al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah.

Further supporting its anomalous nature is that I have found a corroborating narration for this hadith of Ibn ʿAmr from Abū Hurayrah with similar wording that does not contain the addition. Its wording is:

“How will it be with you, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, when you remain among the dregs of people, their covenants and trusts in disarray, and they differ until they become like this?” — and he interlaced his fingers. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, what do you command me?” He said, “Keep to those who are close to you and leave the common people alone.”

206 – “How will it be with you, ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr, when you remain among the dregs of people, their covenants and trusts in disarray, and they differ until they become like this?” — and he interlaced his fingers. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, what do you command me?” He said, “Keep to those who are close to you and leave the common people alone.”

It was recorded by al-Dūlābī in al-Kunā (2/35), Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1849), Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī in al-Sunan al-Wāridah fī al-Fitān (fol. 16/2), and Ibn al-Sammāk in the first part of the fourth section of his collection (108), through two routes from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Abū