610—Islamic University photographic edition) through Yunus ibn Muhammad, from al-Layth, who said: Jaʿfar ibn Rabiʿah narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Hurmuz, from Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said it. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission; all its narrators are reliable and are among the narrators of the two Shaykhs. Al-Bukhari cited it in suspended form, in several places in his Sahih (1498, 2063, 2291, 2404, 2430, 2734, and 6261), using the definitive wording: “Al-Layth said …” He also gave its connected chain in the transmission of Abu Dharr and Abu al-Waqt, saying: “ʿAbd Allah ibn Salih narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to me …,” as found in al-Fath (4/470). In the last of the places cited above, he suspended part of it, saying: “ʿUmar ibn Abi Salamah narrated from his father, from Abu Hurayrah.”
He gave its connected chain in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1128), as did Ibn Hibban (6453, al-Ihsan). This chain is weak. ʿUmar ibn Abi Salamah is al-Zuhri, the judge. Al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, but makes mistakes.” Al-Dhahabi said in al-Mughni: “Ibn Maʿin declared him weak, and al-Nasaʾi and others said: He is not strong.”
I say: A narrator of this sort cannot be cited as proof; he is only suitable for supporting narrations and corroborative reports. Here, he differs from the first, authentic narration in several respects, one of them being his wording, “six hundred dinars,” in place of one thousand. He also added at its end: “Abu Hurayrah said: I saw that our disputation and clamour before the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—over which of us was more trustworthy became frequent.”
The annotator of al-Ihsan, in the Muʾassasah edition (14/409), overlooked all of this and claimed that its chain of transmission is good! Moreover, he failed to notice the objectionable irregularities found in it. Perhaps this is why al-Haythami did not include it in al-Mawarid; I have supplemented it for him in Daʿif al-Mawarid.