of the two Shaykhs, and among al-Bukhari’s leading shaykhs. They mentioned that he was one of the ʿAbādilah (the transmitters named ʿAbd Allah) who narrated from Ibn Lahiʿah before his books were burned, and that the hadiths they transmitted from him are authentic.

He narrated this through two chains of transmission. The first is from Abu Qabil, from ʿUqbah; and the other is from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Abu al-Khayr, from ʿUqbah. This is an authentic chain of transmission, since the two narrators above Ibn Lahiʿah are also trustworthy narrators of the two Shaykhs. Abu al-Khayr’s name was Marthad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Yazani.

As for his first chain, it is good, because Abu Qabil—whose name was Hayy ibn Hani al-Maʿafiri—was declared trustworthy by a number of scholars, including Ahmad, though some deemed him weak. Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but prone to error.” Thus, his hadith is at least good. And Allah knows best.

The hadith was also narrated by al-Fasawi in al-Tarikh (2/507), Abu Yaʿla in his Musnad (2/284, no. 1746), al-Harawi in Dhamm al-Kalam (2/28/1), and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in Jamiʿ Bayan al-ʿIlm (2/193), all of them from ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazid through this chain. Al-Harawi alone added ʿUqbah al-Hadrami to the chain between Ibn Lahiʿah and Abu Qabil. This is an anomalous addition, since the group explicitly stated in their narrations that Ibn Lahiʿah heard this hadith from Abu Qabil. Even if it were authentic, it would cause no harm, for this ʿUqbah—ʿUqbah ibn Muslim al-Tujibi—was unquestionably trustworthy.

Ahmad (4/146) and al-Tabarani in al-Muʿjam al-Kabir (17/296/816) then narrated it through two other chains from Ibn Lahiʿah, through the same chain, without mentioning ʿUqbah al-Hadrami.