This concludes the discussion of the other route from Anas.

As for the corroborating report, al-Tabari relates it in his Exegesis (4/146) through two routes from Qatadah: that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Your brother, the Negus, has died, so offer the funeral prayer for him.” They said, “Are we to pray for a man who is not Muslim?” Then ... was revealed.

It is an authentic mursal report, as mentioned above.

A hadith of Wahshi ibn Harb in al-Tabarani’s al-Kabir (22/136/361) conveys the same meaning, but its chain of transmission is weak. Similarly, there is the hadith of Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri in al-Tabarani’s al-Awsat (1/284/2/4782), whose chain of transmission is very weak. What has preceded is sufficient.

Note: Al-Haythami did not mention al-Tabarani’s hadith in al-Awsat in Majma‘ al-Bahrayn; there are other similar instances.

It remains to discuss al-Bazzar’s first chain of transmission, to determine whether al-Haythami had any valid basis for not commenting on it. I say:

First: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Thabit ibn Thawban, the narrator from Humayd. Al-Dhahabi said in al-Mughni:

“Truthful. Ahmad said: ‘He is not strong.’”

Al-Hafiz said:

“Truthful, but makes mistakes.”