“It is narrated from Umar only by this route, and we know of no one who narrated it from Ibn Uyaynah other than Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, the brother of Abu Ma‘mar.”

I say: Al-Khatib included his biography in al-Tarikh (1/387) and cited this hadith through al-Tabarani’s chain. He also related that Yahya ibn Ma‘in was asked about Abu Ma‘mar, and replied: “A man such as Abu Ma‘mar need not be asked about; he and his brother are among the people of hadith.” He then related from the hadith master Musa ibn Harun, who said: “Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, the brother of Abu Ma‘mar, is truthful; there is no objection to him.”

I say: Those above him in the chain are reliable narrators included by both al-Bukhari and Muslim. Ibn Musawir al-Jawhari was one of al-Tabarani’s reliable shaykhs, according to al-Khatib (4/349) and al-Dhahabi in al-Siyar (13/59–60). Thus, the chain of transmission is authentic.

Despite this hadith’s many corroborating reports and the fact that a number of leading scholars declared it authentic, the self-deceived and self-admiring man known as Hassan ibn Abd al-Mannan ventured to classify it as weak through the three routes he cited in his annotations to Ibn al-Qayyim’s Ighathat al-Lahfan (1/528), on the authority of three Companions. He concealed other corroborating reports, such as these two strong ones, not to mention the Prophet’s saying, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him: “Take the pre-dawn meal, for there is blessing in it.” Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim, and documented in al-Rawd al-Nadir (49 and 1089).

In his annotations to this book and others, he has committed this same unjust and erroneous weakening with respect to hundreds of authentic hadiths, which he boldly declares weak although the scholars have authenticated them. I am now undertaking to trace them in this book and others, if Allah makes that possible for me. I have completed the hadiths of its first volume, and they have reached about one hundred, a little more or a little less. Allah is the One whose help is sought.