“Authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.

I say: Al-Thaqafi does not meet their criteria, and Bahz ibn Asad was not among their shaykhs. Thus, it is merely authentic, provided it is free of anomaly or contradiction.

The second corroborating report is from ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas, ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar, and ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs collectively: the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said … and then cited it.

Abu Nuʿaym recorded it in al-Hilyah (3/305) through ʿUthman ibn ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar al-Umawi, who said: Yahya ibn Ayyub, the trustworthy narrator, narrated to us: Hisham ibn Hassan, Layth ibn Abi Sulaym, and two others whom he named narrated to me, each of them saying: “I heard Abu al-Hajjaj—that is, Mujahid—say, from ʿAbdullah ibn ʿAbbas …” and so on. He said:

“This is an authentic, established hadith from Anas ibn Malik, but is singular in its collective transmission from them through Mujahid; Yahya ibn Ayyub alone narrated it.”

I say: He is Yahya ibn Ayyub al-Ghafiqi, the Egyptian, and he is trustworthy. If this has indeed been accurately preserved from him—as Abu Nuʿaym’s attribution of the report’s sole transmission to him suggests—then the chain is authentic. However, I have serious doubts about this because of its singularity and because al-Umawi, who narrates it from him, is accused of fabrication and has a very unfavorable entry in al-Mizan and Lisan al-Mizan. And Allah knows best.

The third corroborating report is from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, like the preceding hadith of Sinan ibn Saʿd from Anas. Al-Khatib recorded it (8/262) through Hakim ibn Nafiʿ al-Raqqi, from ʿAtaʾ al-Khurasani, from him.

I say: This is a weak chain of transmission. ʿAtaʾ—namely, Ibn Abi Muslim al-Khurasani—was described by al-Hafiz as: “Truthful, but frequently mistaken; he transmits with omitted links and practices tadlis.”