A man then said, “And what about perfume, O Abū al-ʿAbbās?” Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “For my part I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ anointing his head with musk; is that not perfume?”

Aḥmad also recorded it (1/369): “Yazīd narrated to us; Sufyān informed us” with the chain likewise attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās. He said: “Ibn ʿAbbās was asked about a man who, after stoning the Jamrah, may he apply perfume? He answered, ‘For my part …’” – and so on.

Al-Nasāʾī (2/52) and Ibn Mājah (2/245) transmitted it through the route of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd; Ibn Mājah again through Wakīʿ; Wakīʿ and Abū Yaʿlā in his Musnad (folio 143/1) through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; and al-Bayhaqī (5/133) through Ibn Wahb and (5/204) through Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥaffār – all of them from Sufyān, with wording identical to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s version in Aḥmad, attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās and containing the additional phrase.

Al-Ṭaḥāwī likewise related it (1/419) via Abū ʿĀṣim, from Sufyān.

I say: Every narrator in this chain is trustworthy and belongs to the transmitters of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, yet the report is interrupted between al-Ḥasan al-ʿUrnī – that is, ibn ʿAbd Allāh – and Ibn ʿAbbās, for he did not hear from him, as Aḥmad stated. Abū Ḥātim even said, “He never met him.” Moreover, most transmitters from Sufyān stop the report with Ibn ʿAbbās; only Wakīʿ raised it to the Prophet in his first narration, whereas in the version coupled with ʿAbd al-Raḥmān it is also mawqūf, and the same holds true in Ibn Mājah. The correct judgment, therefore, is that the report, in addition to being interrupted, is a Companion-level statement.

It does, however, have a corroborant from ʿĀʾishah (Allah be pleased with her). She said, “I perfumed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with my own hands using powdered perfume (dharīrah) during the Farewell Pilgrimage – both while he was in iḥrām and when he cast the Jamrat al-ʿAqabah on the Day of Sacrifice, before he circumambulated the House.”

Aḥmad recorded this (6/244) from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrwah, who said that he heard ʿUrwah and al-Qāsim relate it from ʿĀʾishah.

I say: This chain is authentic according to the criteria of the two Ṣaḥīḥs, and its original wording is found in both of them.