—how could it be accepted when, above him in the chain, there is that unknown narrator whose very name has not even been identified? Most of this hadith’s chains revolve around him, while some omitted him, whether inadvertently or deliberately, because of his anonymity.

Finally, I say: The principal basis for declaring the hadith under discussion authentic is the route of Qays ibn al-Sakan al-Asadī, with which we began this hadith documentation. And Allah is the Granter of success.

Note: In light of this clarification, verification, and detail, I hope that my noble brethren who may find, in some of my earlier works, something that conflicts with what is stated here will revise and correct it in accordance with what is established here. An example is the authentication in Ghayat al-Maram of Ibn Majah’s hadith containing the two objectionable additions explained above. I would be grateful.

I then came across something even more objectionable to me than Ibn Masʿūd’s wife seeking healing incantations from a Jewish man: what Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated from ʿAmrah bint ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, entered upon ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, while she was unwell and a Jewish woman was performing healing incantations for her. Abū Bakr said: “Perform healing incantations for her using the Book of Allah.”

Mālik recorded it in al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (3/121), as did Ibn Abī Shaybah (8/50/3663), al-Kharāʾiṭī in Makārim al-Akhlāq (2/977/1105), and al-Bayhaqī (9/349), through several routes from him.

I say: This is a chain of transmission whose narrators are trustworthy, but it is interrupted, for this ʿAmrah did not live to meet Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him; she was born thirteen years after his death. However, al-Bayhaqī has a narration through Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, who said: Sufyān related from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAmrah, from ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, that she said: “Abū Bakr entered while a Jewish woman was with her...” and so on.