Likewise, Ibn ʿAsākir recorded it through Abū Yaʿlā, via his chain from ʿAffān. It appears this way in Abū Yaʿlā’s Musnad (10/143–144), except that it reads: “Zayd Abū Salām”! This is undoubtedly an error, since Zayd is not known by the kunyah Abū Salām; rather, that was the kunyah of his grandfather Mamtūr, as mentioned above. Thus, I do not know whether the correct wording is that found in Ibn ʿAsākir’s narration from Abū Yaʿlā—“Zayd ibn Salām”—or that in Aḥmad’s Musnad: “Zayd, from Abū Salām.” Both are possible. Allah knows best what is correct.

The chain is highly inconsistent in Hishām’s narration—namely, al-Dastuwāʾī’s—as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir has made clear. The narration of Muʿāwiyah ibn Salām is the one relied upon, as will be seen below. Among the evidence for this is what al-Nasāʾī (1/202), al-Ṭaḥāwī as well, and al-Bayhaqī (3/171–172) recorded through other routes from Abān al-ʿAṭṭār, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Zayd ibn Salām, from al-Ḥaḍramī ibn Lāḥiq, from al-Ḥakam ibn Mīnāʾ, with the same report.

There are also some other variations in the narrations from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, among which it is difficult to give preference. Whoever wishes to examine them may refer to Ibn ʿAsākir and to the Muṣannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzāq (3/166/5168). Nevertheless, they indicate that the hadith has a firmly established basis from al-Ḥakam ibn Mīnāʾ, strengthening Muʿāwiyah ibn Salām’s narration mentioned at the beginning of the documentation. Muslim relied upon it, and al-Bayhaqī deemed it stronger. After citing the aforementioned narrations of Abān and Hishām, he said: “Muʿāwiyah ibn Salām’s narration from his brother Zayd is more likely to have been accurately preserved. Allah knows best.”

I have also found another chain for Ibn ʿUmar’s hadith: Faraj ibn Faḍālah narrated it from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Nāfiʿ, from him. He said: “I heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, delivering a sermon from this pulpit and saying”—then he cited it. Abū Nuʿaym recorded it in Akhbār Iṣfahān (2/213). Faraj ibn Faḍālah is weak.