and al-Bayhaqī (5/70/5812) recorded it through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ: Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd narrated to me from ʿUqayl, with the same report. I say: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ has a well-known weakness. Thus, his contradiction cannot be accepted, whether in the chain of transmission or in the text of the hadith. Moreover, he mentioned “the odor” and “al-waḍaḥ,” meaning leucoderma. Yet al-Mundhirī (3/130)—followed by al-Haythamī—said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it with a good chain of transmission!”

The fourth: Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, with the same report, except that he said: “the smell of grease.” Al-Bazzār cited it without a full chain, as stated above, while al-Ṭabarānī recorded it with a connected chain in al-Muʿjam al-Ṣaghīr (p. 168, Indian edition), through ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Muqaddamī, from Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn, with the same report.

I say: This is a feeble contradiction for two reasons. First, Sufyān ibn Ḥusayn was deemed weak specifically in his narrations from al-Zuhrī. Second, ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Muqaddamī practised an unusual form of concealment in transmission, such that even if he explicitly stated that he had heard a report, doubt would remain as to whether he had actually heard it, as explained in his biography in al-Tahdhīb. This hadith of ʿĀʾishah falls within al-Haythamī’s criteria for inclusion in his al-Majmaʿ; yet it was among the reports he missed, and so he did not include it.

In sum, the most authentic of these routes is that of Ibn ʿUyaynah, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās. The first route from him is an acceptable supporting report. It also has a supporting report from Abū Hurayrah in the Sunan works and elsewhere, such as al-Adab al-Mufrad (1220) and Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (5496); its chain of transmission is authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.