Aḥmad also recorded it (3/3446). Its narrators are trustworthy, were it not for the weakness of Ibn Lahīʿah. Al-Haythamī cited it in al-Majmaʿ (1/100), from Ibn ʿUmar, attributed to the Prophet with all four clauses, and said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in full in al-Kabīr, as did al-Bazzār. Aḥmad narrated only the clauses: ‘The adulterer does not commit adultery,’ and ‘nor does he steal.’ Ibn Lahīʿah occurs in Aḥmad’s chain, while Muʿallā ibn Mahdī occurs in al-Ṭabarānī’s chain. Abū Ḥātim said: ‘At times he narrates rejected hadiths,’ and Ibn Ḥibbān included him among the trustworthy narrators.”

He then mentioned two further corroborating reports, narrated by al-Ṭabarānī from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mughaffal and Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī; whoever wishes may consult them.

Know that what prompted me to document the sources and chains of this hadith—whose authenticity is agreed upon by the hadith imams, including the two Shaykhs and others—was that I saw Shaykh Zāhid al-Kawtharī, known for his intense hostility toward Ahl al-Sunnah and the scholars of hadith, comment upon it in his marginal notes to the book al-Tanbīh (“The Admonition”) in a manner that gives the ordinary reader the impression that it is a weak hadith that cannot serve as evidence. I therefore considered it necessary to undertake this documentation, by which every reader may uncover the ways in which his comment misleads readers by making them understand the opposite of the truth. This will now be clarified. For, in the comment referred to (p. 154), after mentioning two other authentic hadiths—one being the hadith of ʿUbādah cited shortly before, and the other the hadith of Abū Dharr cited above under no. 826: “Even if he steals and commits adultery”—he said: “As for the hadith, ‘The adulterer does not commit adultery while he is a believer,’ it is less authentic than those two (!) Indeed, some scholars even denied its authenticity altogether, as Ibn Jarīr reported. Its chain includes Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bukayr, whom Abū Ḥātim did not regard as a proof, and whom al-Nasāʾī declared weak. Yet the majority considered him acceptable and interpreted the hadith because its apparent meaning conflicts with the Quran, the sunnah, and consensus. See Fatḥ al-Bārī (12/47).”