Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Awsat (1/174/2/3233), and al-Diya al-Maqdisi, through his chain, in al-Mukhtarah (1/484): Bakr ibn Sahl narrated to us; he said: Mahdi ibn Jafar al-Ramli narrated to us ... Al-Tabarani said: “No one narrated it from Ishaq ibn Abd Allah except Abd al-Ala ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Farwah; al-Walid alone narrated it.”

I say: He is trustworthy and one of the narrators of the two Sahihs, but the “leveling” form of concealment in transmission is feared from him. In the aforementioned transmission of al-Abbas al-Dimashqi, however, he explicitly stated direct narration throughout the entire chain of transmission, though I do not know whether that has been reliably preserved.

Al-Ramli’s naming of al-Walid’s shaykh as Abd al-Ala ibn Abd Allah ibn Abi Farwah is, in my view, more likely correct than al-Abbas’s naming him as Isa ibn Abd al-Ala ibn Abi Farwah. For he is known to have narrated from Ishaq ibn Abd Allah, and al-Walid ibn Muslim narrated from him. Perhaps it was for this reason that al-Diya included it in al-Mukhtarah. However, al-Dhahabi listed Bakr ibn Sahl in al-Duafa (The Weak Narrators) and said: “He is of moderate standing; al-Nasa’i declared him weak.” This is a summary of his statement in al-Mizan (The Balance): “People narrated from him, and his standing is near acceptable; al-Nasa’i said: ‘Weak.’”

I say: If he is Isa, then he is unknown. If he is Abd al-Ala, then he is trustworthy. On the first possibility, even if it does not add strength to the hadith, it does it no harm; on the other, the chain of transmission is authentic, provided it is free of the concealment in transmission of al-Walid ibn Muslim. And Allah knows best.

2831 — “A man is rewarded for all his spending, except what he spends on this soil.”

Hannad ibn al-Sari recorded it in al-Zuhd (2/374/722): Abu Muawiyah narrated to us, from Ismail ibn Abi Khalid, from Qays, from Khabbab, who said: