and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (2/149/7299, according to my numbering): Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Miṣrī narrated to us, through this chain. He said:

“No one transmitted it from Kaʿb except Mūsā ibn Wardān; Ḍimām alone reported it.”

I say: He is truthful, though he sometimes erred, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb. Al-Dhahabī said in al-Mīzān:

“His hadith are acceptable; some criticized him as weak without any basis.”

I say: The rest of the narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from Mūsā ibn Wardān, who is truthful, as stated in al-Kāshif and al-Taqrīb, which adds: “though he sometimes erred.”

I say: He is paired with the trustworthy Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, as you can see. This is not negated by al-Ṭabarānī’s statement, “No one transmitted it from Kaʿb except Mūsā,” for he meant: with a connected chain—and Allah knows best. Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb was born around the year 48 AH, while Kaʿb died after the year 50 AH, so it appears that he did not meet him. Thus, al-Ṭabarānī, may Allah have mercy on him, seems to have indicated that the chain through Yazīd is interrupted, whereas the chain through Mūsā is connected. They have mentioned a narration of his from Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, and Mūsā’s biographers state that he died in the year 117 AH at the age of seventy-four; thus, he lived during Kaʿb’s lifetime, and Allah knows best. Therefore, the chain is good, if Allah Most High wills.

Perhaps for this reason al-Ḥāfiẓ made no comment on it in al-Iṣābah, while attributing it only to al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsaṭ. His teacher al-Haythamī said in al-Majmaʿ (10/314):

“…and its chain is good.”

Al-Mundhirī said in al-Targhīb (4/110):

“…I do not presently have its chain before me, except that our shaykh, al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥasan, may Allah have mercy on him—”