I say: He is indicating that Abu Hilal was weak and not strong enough for his attribution of it through a chain to Abu Hurayrah to be accepted. In any case, it has a strong mursal corroborating report. As for al-Haythami, he said (5/198):
“Al-Bazzar narrated it, and it contains Abu Hilal, who is trustworthy; and al-Tabarani [narrated it] in al-Awsat!”
- As for the hadith of Mu‘awiyah, al-Haytham ibn Marwan narrated it: Zayd ibn Yahya ibn ‘Ubayd narrated to us; Sa‘id ibn Bashir narrated to us from Abu Bishr Ja‘far ibn Iyas, from Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, that ‘Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr said to Mu‘awiyah, during the discussion that took place between them concerning the pledge of allegiance to Yazid ibn Mu‘awiyah:
“And you, Mu‘awiyah! You told me that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
‘If there are two caliphs on earth, kill the latter of them.’”
It was recorded by al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (19/314/710) and in al-Awsat (4/320/2535—Majma‘ al-Bahrayn). He said:
“No one narrated it from Ibn al-Zubayr except Sa‘id; no one narrated it from him except Abu Bishr; no one narrated it from him except Sa‘id ibn Bashir. Zayd ibn Yahya alone narrated it.”
I say: He is trustworthy, as are all the other narrators, except Sa‘id ibn Bashir. He has some weakness, but not enough to preclude citing him as corroboration. Al-Haythami, however, was lenient regarding it, saying:
“Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir and al-Awsat, and its narrators are trustworthy!”
- As for the hadith of Anas, ‘Ammar ibn Harun narrated it: Fudalah ibn Dinar al-Shahham narrated to us; Thabit narrated to us from Anas.
It was recorded by al-‘Uqayli in al-Du‘afa’ (3/457) and by al-Khatib in al-Tarikh (1/239). Al-‘Uqayli said: