That is what he said! But it was only what he knew; otherwise, it is refuted by al-Bazzar’s narration in his Musnad (4/140, Kashf al-Astar): Al-Qasim ibn Bishr ibn Ma‘ruf narrated to us: Qabisah ibn ‘Uqbah narrated to us through the same chain, except that he said, “Rabi‘ ibn Hirash” in place of “Shaddad ibn ‘Ammar.” He said:

“We know of no narration of it in this wording from anyone but Hudhayfah through this chain. ‘Ubayd was a well-known Kufan, from whom a number of people narrated.”

I say: Among them were Waki‘, ‘Ubayd Allah ibn Musa, and Abu Nu‘aym, as stated in al-Jarh (2/2/409), as well as Abu Ahmad al-Zubayri, as stated in Ibn Hibban’s al-Thiqat (7/157). If this Qabisah is added to them, they total five trustworthy narrators, most of them leading hadith masters. Thus, he is trustworthy. Abu Hatim and Abu Zur‘ah said, “There is no harm in him,” while Ibn Ma‘in said, “He is somewhat sound.”

All the other narrators in al-Bazzar’s chain are trustworthy and included in al-Tahdhib, apart from al-Qasim ibn Bishr ibn Ma‘ruf. Al-Khatib gave his biography (12/427), identified him as Abu Muhammad al-Baghdadi, and said:

“He was trustworthy.”

Ibn Hibban also listed him in al-Thiqat (9/19). The chain is therefore authentic. It is not impaired by Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Waki‘i differing from him in al-Tabarani’s narration, substituting “Shaddad ibn ‘Ammar” for Rabi‘ ibn Hirash, since both al-Waki‘i and Ibn Ma‘ruf are trustworthy. It is possible that ‘Ubayd ibn Tufayl narrated it from both Rabi‘ ibn Hirash and Shaddad ibn ‘Ammar, reporting it at one time from the former and at another from the latter. The chain through the former is authentic, as noted above, for he was trustworthy and belonged to the generation that lived through both the pre-Islamic and Islamic eras.

As for Shaddad, he is not well-known. Al-Bukhari, Ibn Abi Hatim, and Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al-Thiqat (4/358), through this narration of ‘Ubayd ibn Tufayl from him. I was close to preferring ‘Ubayd ibn Tufayl’s narration from Rabi‘, because it is better known than his narration from Shaddad, had I not found that al-Bukhari corroborated al-Waki‘i in his narration, saying therein: