Al-Ṭabarānī said: “No one narrated it from Abū ʿAmr except al-Yazīdī, and Abū ʿUmar al-Dūrī alone narrated it from him.” I say: He was trustworthy and was among the shaykhs of Abū Zurʿah and others. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “There is no harm in him.”

His shaykh, Abū Muḥammad al-Yazīdī—whose name was Yaḥyā ibn al-Mubārak—has a biographical entry in Tārīkh Baghdād (14/147), where he is declared trustworthy. The rest of its transmitters are known and trustworthy; I discussed them in al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr (441), except for this al-Narsī. I have found no biographical entry for him that indicates his standing. Al-Khaṭīb mentioned him in al-Tārīkh solely in connection with this hadith, without adding anything further, which suggests that he was one of al-Ṭabarānī’s unknown shaykhs. He narrated few hadiths, for al-Ṭabarānī recorded only three hadiths from him in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ, this being one of them.

Yet al-Ṭabarānī’s foregoing statement appears to indicate that he was not alone in narrating it, namely his words: “Abū ʿUmar al-Dūrī alone narrated it from him.” Accordingly, the chain of transmission is sound, and it is further strengthened by the preceding routes, especially the first route, which—as stated above—is authentic in itself. Although its text is abbreviated, the other routes give a fuller and clearer account.

Note: In the verse, the word is read yaghullu, with its first letter vowelled with fatḥah and its second with ḍammah. Shaykh al-Aʿẓamī, in al-Kashf, marked it with ḍammah on its first letter and fatḥah on its second, and some recited it that way. But the correct reading is the first one, as Imam Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī explained in his exegesis; whoever wishes may consult it.