Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd differed from Ismāʿīl, saying: from al-Zubaydī, from Luqmān ibn ʿĀmir, from ʿĀmir ibn Jushayb, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, with the same report. However, he did not say, “from his sister al-Ṣammāʾ,” and he inserted ʿĀmir ibn Jushayb between Luqmān and Khālid. Al-Dāraqutnī declared Ibn Jushayb trustworthy, so this is a strong corroborating transmission from Ibn Jushayb, were it not for al-Walīd’s unqualified use of “from.”

Yet there is a very strong corroborating transmission, narrated by three trustworthy narrators from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, with the same report as in the narration of al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ. It is cited in al-Irwāʾ. There, I mentioned an authentic supporting report for it from the hadith of Abū Umāmah, traced back to the Prophet. Whoever wishes to examine it may refer to it there.

The purpose of documenting the hadith here, after we had thoroughly examined it in al-Irwāʾ in terms of its documentation and authentication, was solely to investigate this chain of al-Ḥakam ibn Mūsā, from Ismāʿīl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from Abū Umāmah.

It now appears to me that it is not unlikely that Ismāʿīl did not err in his chain of transmission from Abū Umāmah, since others also narrated it from him, as I mentioned above. And Allah, the Exalted, knows best.

Once you know what has preceded, it is an injustice to the sunnah and a deviation from it for some contemporary writers to hasten to cast doubt on the authenticity of this hadith—let alone to categorically declare it weak, much less to claim that it is a fabrication. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

Then I found a supporting report, or another route for it, which Aḥmad narrated (6/368): Ḥasan ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Wardān narrated to us; ʿUmayr ibn Jubayr (!)—the freedman of Khārijah—told me that the woman who asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, about fasting on Saturday related to him that she had asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, about it, and he said:

“It is neither for you nor against you.”