As for Mukhāriq ibn Sulaym al-Shaybānī, he was a Successor, as this report indicates. Ibn Ḥibbān explicitly stated this, listing him in Thiqāt al-Tābiʿīn (5/444) through his son ʿAbd Allāh’s narration from him. In al-Tahdhīb, he added a second son who narrated from him: Qābūs. The apparent implication of his treatment is that he did not distinguish between this Mukhāriq ibn Sulaym al-Shaybānī, from whom Abū Isḥāq al-Shaybānī narrated, and Mukhāriq Abū Qābūs, from whom his son Qābūs narrated.

Al-Bukhārī and Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned the two in separate places, unlike Ibn Ḥibbān. For, in Abū Qābūs’s biographical entry, he stated that he narrated from ʿAlī and ʿAmmār, whereas Ibn Abī Ḥātim mentioned this in the entry on al-Shaybānī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb:

“Mukhāriq ibn Sulaym al-Shaybānī, Abū Qābūs: there is disagreement as to whether he was a Companion; Ibn Ḥibbān listed him among the trustworthy Successors.”

As for al-Dhahabī, he stated definitively in al-Kāshif that he was a Companion!

I say: Thus, the hadith of someone like him is good, Allah willing.

Al-Haythamī said regarding the hadith in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (5/326):

“Ahmad narrated it—and its chain of transmission is interrupted—as did Abū Yaʿlā, al-Bazzār, and al-Ṭabarānī. Its chain includes Isḥāq ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Shaybānī, from whom a number of narrators transmitted, and no one declared him weak. The remaining narrators in one of al-Ṭabarānī’s chains are trustworthy.” *

3117—“If you do not find me, then go to Abū Bakr.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (3659, 7220, and 360), Muslim (7/110), al-Tirmidhī (3677), who declared it authentic, Ibn Ḥibbān (8/226/6622), al-Ṭayālisī in his Musnad (944), as well as Aḥmad (4/82 and 83) and Abū Yaʿlā (13/399/7402), and from him Ibn