“Authentic according to the criteria of the Two Shaykhs!” Al-Dhahabi concurred.

I say: It meets Muslim’s criteria only, for al-Bukhari did not include Muʿawiyah in his Ṣaḥīḥ.

The third: al-Naḍr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allah said: I heard Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ say … and he related it.

Ahmad recorded it (4/107) through Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān, from him.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from this al-Naḍr. Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned him in al-Taʿjīl and said: “There is some question concerning him.” In al-Ikmāl, he said: “Unknown.”

I say: Perhaps his name was corrupted by al-Qaṭīʿī or another transmitter of al-Musnad, for al-Ṭabarānī recorded it (22/71/174), through the same route by which Ahmad recorded it: Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān said: I heard ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn ʿAbd Allah say: I heard Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ relate it. Thus, the chain returns to the first route.

The fourth: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Ḥimṣī, from Wāthilah ibn al-Asqaʿ, to the same effect.

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it (22/93/224), as well as in al-Awsaṭ (2/80/2/6295—according to my numbering), through Ṭalḥah ibn Zayd, from Yūnus ibn Yazīd, from al-Zuhrī, from him.

On this basis, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā is al-Sulamī. Al-Bukhari and Ibn Abī Ḥātim gave his biography, but neither mentioned any criticism or accreditation of him. Ibn Ḥibbān, however, included him among the trustworthy narrators in al-Thiqāt (5/128), and recorded from him in al-Ṣaḥīḥ (2093) the hadith: “In Allah’s decree, I was recorded as the Seal of the Prophets …” I have declared it authentic in al-Mishkāh (5759), and its explanation is in al-Ḍaʿīfah (2085).