3101—“Do not fast on Saturday except in fulfillment of an obligatory fast. Even if you find nothing but the bark of a tree, break your fast with it.”

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (8/303/7722): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal narrated to us: al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā narrated to me: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from Abū Umāmah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said … and he mentioned it.

I say: The narrators in this chain of transmission are all trustworthy, but it contains a hidden defect. Al-Haythamī said in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (3/198):

“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr through Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh from narrators of the Ḥijāz, and he is weak in his narrations from them.”

I say: It is as he said. However, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh has another authentic Syrian chain for it. Imam Aḥmad said (6/368–369): al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ narrated to us: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Zubaydī, from Luqmān ibn ʿĀmir, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Busr, from his sister al-Ṣammāʾ, with similar wording.

It has been cited in al-Irwāʾ (4/121) through this route and others.

This chain is more authentic, because al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ is trustworthy and precise, whereas al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā is truthful, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb. Thus, the first chain is authentic, because Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Zubaydī is trustworthy and precise.

Ḍamrah ibn Rabīʿah also corroborated Ibn Nāfiʿ in narrating it from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh.

Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in Musnad al-Shāmiyyīn (p. 317).