“Its chain of transmission is good.”

Muhajir ibn Habib has no entry in the biographical works, apart from what Ibn Hibban has already stated—while expressing his fear that it was a corruption of “Muhasir.” It was likewise corrupted in copies of al-Isabah and Asad al-Ghabah (1/85), by the compiler of Fihris al-Jarh wa-al-Ta'dil (p. 561), and by others, such as the annotator of al-Thiqat. The aforementioned statement appears there as, “I fear that he may be Muhajir...”—that is, as “Muhajir”!

The name occurs correctly in the biography of Arta'ah ibn al-Mundhir in Tarikh Ibn Asakir and Tahdhib al-Kamal, as well as in al-Haythami’s Tartib Thiqat al-'Ijli (442/1645), where he said:

“He was a trustworthy Successor from al-Sham.”

I say: In his book Tartib Thiqat Ibn Hibban, al-Haythami did not include the corrupted biography of “Muhajir...”. I do not know whether this was because he was convinced that it was corrupted and thus unsuitable for inclusion in the book, or because it was absent from the copy of al-Thiqat available to him. Allah knows best.

In Majma' al-Zawa'id, he also alluded to the reliability of this Muhasir, saying after the hadith under discussion (10/357):

“Al-Tabarani narrated it. Its chain includes Baqiyyah ibn al-Walid, who practised tadlis, while the rest of its narrators are trustworthy.”

I say: In al-Bukhari’s version, Baqiyyah explicitly stated his transmission, thereby removing any concern over his concealment in transmission. For this reason, al-Hafiz graded its chain as good, as mentioned above. Allah knows best.

The name of this Muhasir was also corrupted in another hadith, whose sources must therefore be traced: *