“the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” I do not know whether this was omitted by some copyists, or whether the narration reached him in this form. In any case, the hadith is certainly attributed to the Prophet, in view of the sources that explicitly attribute it to him and because it has the status of a report attributed to the Prophet: it concerns matters of the unseen, in which personal opinion has no place.
Its chain is authentic, for all its narrators, apart from this al-Mundhir, are trustworthy narrators of the two Shaykhs. Ibn Ma‘in declared him trustworthy, as you have seen; Ibn Hibban listed him among the trustworthy narrators from the Followers of the Followers in al-Thiqat (7/481); and Imam Ahmad likewise declared him trustworthy. This is one of the precious findings which, by Allah’s grace, I came across in some manuscripts preserved at the al-Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus, Syria—may Allah guard it. Ibn Qudamah cited the hadith in al-Muntakhab (10/194/2) through Hanbal: Abu Abd Allah narrated to us; Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us … and so on. Abu Abd Allah said: “Al-Mundhir ibn al-Nu‘man is a trustworthy Yemeni narrator. Apart from this, none of his hadiths has a continuous chain to the Prophet.” This is a rare benefit, so hold fast to it.
Moreover, Abd al-Razzaq was not alone in narrating it: Mu‘tamir ibn Sulayman corroborated him, narrating it from al-Mundhir. It was recorded by Abu Ya‘la in al-Musnad (2/636) and by al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Jawhari in Fawa’id Muntaqah (folio 28/2). Abu Ya‘la added: “Mu‘tamir said: I think he said: ‘in al-A‘maq.’”
He was also corroborated by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Atash al-San‘ani, who said: Al-Mundhir ibn al-Aftas narrated to us. Ibn Adi recorded it in al-Kamil (6/2184), saying: Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Ziyad narrated to us; Ali ibn Bahr al-Barri narrated to us; Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Atash al-San‘ani narrated to us—through the same chain. Ibn al-Jawzi cited it from Ibn Adi’s route in al-Ahadith al-Wahiyah and based his objection on something unsuitable, saying (1/306–307):