I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission meeting the criteria of the two Shaykhs. In Ahmad’s other narration, he added: “He said: I asked, ‘What about the juff?’ He replied, ‘That is even worse.’”

ʿAsim—al-Ahwal—differed from the routes mentioned above regarding the Successor in the hadith. He said: “Muhammad narrated to us from Abu al-ʿAlaniyah, who said: ‘I came to Abu Saʿid al-Khudri and greeted him, but I was not granted permission to enter …’” He then related a story, which includes: “I asked him about the vessels. There was nothing I asked him about except that he said, ‘It is forbidden,’ until I asked him about the juff, and he said, ‘It is forbidden.’ Muhammad said: ‘Leather is placed over its opening and tied shut.’” Al-Bukhari recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (1077).

I say: Its narrators are those of the two Shaykhs, but the wording “Abu al-ʿAlaniyah” in the preceding chain of transmission is an error. Al-Nasa’i indicated this when he said after the preceding chain: “Abu al-ʿAliyah is correct, and the one before it is erroneous.”

I say: This indicates that another chain of transmission containing the error preceded this one. It is not found in the printed edition of al-Sunan al-Kubra of al-Nasa’i, nor in the photographic copy, which may be the source of the printed edition. I located the omitted material through al-Mizzi’s Tuhfah, where it occurs in two places (3/353/451). In the second place, he said: “Al-Nasa’i, in al-Walimah, narrated from ʿAmr ibn ʿAli, from Yahya, from Hisham, from Muhammad, from Abu al-ʿAlaniyah. Yazid ibn Harun corroborated him, narrating from Hisham. Makhlad ibn Yazid also narrated it from Hisham, from”