but he was not alone in narrating it. Baqiyyah said: Bishr ibn Abdullah ibn Yasar told me that Ubadah ibn Nusayy told him, from Junadah ibn Abi Umayyah, from Ubadah ibn al-Samit, a report similar to this one—though the first version is more complete:

“I said: ‘What do you think of it, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied: ‘It is a live coal between your shoulders, whether you wear it as a necklace or hang it there.’”

Abu Dawud narrated it, as did al-Bayhaqi through him. Al-Bayhaqi said: “This hadith has been narrated divergently from Ubadah ibn Nusayy, as you can see.”

He meant that Mughira ibn Ziyad named Ibn Nusayy’s shaykh as al-Aswad ibn Tha'labah, whereas Bishr ibn Abdullah ibn Yasar named him as Junadah ibn Abi Umayyah. In my critical judgment, however, this is not a discrepancy, since Ibn Nusayy may have had two shaykhs for this report, relating it at one time from this one and at another time from the other. Thus, each of Mughira and Bishr reported what he heard from him.

It seems that, for the reason we have mentioned, Ibn Hazm did not deem it defective because of the stated discrepancy. Rather, he found the first chain defective because al-Aswad was unknown, and he found the other defective by saying: “Baqiyyah is weak.”

I say: The established ruling concerning Baqiyyah is that he is truthful; thus, his hadiths are good, except when he uses an ambiguous “from” formula, in which case his reports cannot be cited as evidence. In this hadith, however, he explicitly stated that he received it directly, so we are safe from his concealment in transmission. Moreover, he was not alone in narrating it. Imam Ahmad (5/324) said: “Abu al-Mughirah narrated to us; Bishr ibn Abdullah—that is, Ibn Yasar—narrated to us with this report.” Al-Hakim also narrated it through this route (3/356) and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.

I say: It is as they said, Allah willing, for all its narrators are known and trustworthy, apart from this Bishr. A number of scholars narrated from him, Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy, and Ibn Hajar said of him: “Truthful.”