regarding the inconsistency in its chain of transmission and the unknown status of its narrator, ʿIyāḍ. One indication of this is that it was narrated from ʿIkrimah, from Yaḥyā, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah.

Now that Ibn al-Qaṭṭān—may Allah reward him well—has brought to our attention this good chain, through a route other than that of ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, it must be transferred from Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd to Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd; from Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ; from Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb; and from Ḍaʿīf Ibn Mājah to Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Mājah. Its wording—and that of Abū Dāwūd and others through the route of ʿIkrimah—is similar to the hadith cited in the heading.

I then found it in Tārīkh Baghdād (12/122), through the route of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Ṣabāḥ: Al-Awzāʿī narrated to us from Yaḥyā, and ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Hilāl ibn ʿIyāḍ, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“When two men relieve themselves ...” — the hadith.

I also found another route for it from Abū Saʿīd, but it contains someone accused of fabricating hadiths, so there is no cause for rejoicing over it. I mention it for the record: al-Dāraquṭnī transmitted it in Gharāʾib Mālik through the route of Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Rāzī, who said: Idrīs ibn ʿAlī al-Rāzī narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḍurays narrated to us; Mālik narrated to us from Zayd ibn Aslam, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Abū Saʿīd ... attributing it to the Prophet with similar wording. Al-Dāraquṭnī said:

“It is not authentic from ʿAṭāʾ, nor from Zayd, nor from Mālik. The one accused of fabricating it is Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, who used to fabricate hadiths.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned this in the biographical notice of this Ibn Yūsuf in al-Lisān.

It also has a supporting narration from the hadith of Khallād ibn al-Sāʾib al-Juhanī, from his father, attributed to the Prophet, with similar wording,