I now say that I found him mentioned in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr by al-Bukhārī (1/2/134), al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl by Ibn Abī Ḥātim (1/1/422), and al-Thiqāt by Ibn Ḥibbān (6/114–115). All of them mention him through the transmission of Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṭanāfisī from him. However, Ibn Abī Ḥātim joined his brother Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd with him, which removes his status as an unknown narrator in identity—especially since he mentioned a third narrator from him—though he was uncertain whether this was this Bard or someone else. And Allah knows best.

The reason for writing this source-documentation goes back to our virtuous brother, Professor Muḥammad Shaqrah. May Allah reward him خيرًا: he drew my attention to the fact that Shaykh Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ had affirmed the strength of the hadith, “I have been sent with the upright and tolerant faith,” in his commentary on al-ʿAwāṣim (p. 175), where he rebutted your grading of it as weak in Ghāyat al-Marām. After examining the commentary in question, I found that the truth was on his side, so I informed the professor of this; he thanked me and spoke well of me.

Yet the person referred to was not fair in everything he wrote concerning this hadith—as is his habit whenever an opportunity arises to criticize me. May Allah Most High guide both him and me. He took the source-documentation of most of the hadiths he cited as supporting reports for this hadith from my aforementioned work, Ghāyat al-Marām, without making the slightest indication of this. This is the first point.

Second, he omitted from my aforementioned source-documentation its explanation of the defects in those supporting reports, among them the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās. Indeed, he quoted al-Ḥāfiẓ’s grading of its chain as good and endorsed it, even though he knew that it contains Ibn Isḥāq’s ambiguous use of the transmission formula “from,” and that this is the defect in the hadith. Why, then, did he remain silent about it?!

Third, he gave readers the impression that I had graded the aforementioned hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās as weak, whereas this is not so. Rather, I deemed it good on account of supporting reports whose sources I traced in Tamām al-Minnah fī al-Taʿlīq ʿalā Fiqh al-Sunnah, and I referred to them in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 881. For this reason, I included it