Al-Haythamī said (1/283): “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, and its narrators are trustworthy.” This is what he said. As for al-Ḥāfiẓ, he said in al-Talkhīṣ (4/618): “Its chain of transmission is weak.” I said: In any event, the hadith lends it added strength, and perhaps for this reason Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, stated categorically in al-Fatāwā (1/44) that it is attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”

Then the Muʿjam containing this hadith was published, and I found it there (19/14/20), through Qatādah ibn al-Faḍl ibn Qatādah al-Rahāwī, from his father, who said: “My uncle, Abū Hāshim ibn Qatādah al-Rahāwī, narrated to me from his father.” It thus became clear to me that al-Ḥāfiẓ was correct in grading its chain of transmission weak, and that his shaykh al-Haythamī erred in declaring its narrators trustworthy, for he relied on Ibn Ḥibbān in this regard. Ibn Ḥibbān listed both Hāshim ibn Qatādah al-Rahāwī and al-Faḍl ibn Qatādah al-Rahāwī in his al-Thiqāt (5/503 and 7/317). Ibn Ḥibbān is known to be lenient in declaring narrators trustworthy, particularly since neither of these two men is known except through this chain of transmission. He has another hadith which I had documented in al-Ḍaʿīfah (5941), because it has no corroborating report; unlike this one, whose corroborating report is the hadith under discussion.

It also has an extremely brief corroborating report concerning circumcision, narrated from al-Zuhrī, who said that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Whoever embraces Islam should be circumcised, even if he is advanced in age.” It was narrated by Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Talkhīṣ (4/82/1806—al-Yamānī al-Madanī’s annotation). Al-Suyūṭī, in al-Durr al-Manthūr (1/114), ascribed it without specification to al-Bayhaqī—meaning his al-Sunan al-Kubrā. I did not find it there. He has gone needlessly far afield, for Imam al-Bukhārī narrated it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (322/1252): ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Uwaysī narrated to us; he said: Sulaymān ibn Bilāl narrated to me, from Yūnus, from Ibn Shihāb, who said: