The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, entered the mosque, where some women of the Ansar were present. He admonished and reminded them, and instructed them to give charity, even from their jewelry. Then he said: … and he mentioned it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission, or close to good, because of the well-known difference of opinion concerning Uthman ibn al-Haytham, the muezzin. Although he was among al-Bukhari’s shaykhs, scholars criticized his retention. Ibn Abi Hatim (3/172) said:

“My father narrated from him, and I asked him about him. He replied: ‘He was truthful, except that in his later years he would accept whatever was suggested to him.’”

Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al-Thiqat (8/453–454) and said:

“He died in the year 220 AH.”

Al-Daraqutni said:

“Truthful, but prone to many errors.”

Al-Hafiz summarized this in al-Taqrib, saying:

“Trustworthy; he changed and began to accept prompting.”

Al-Bukhari made no comment about him in al-Tarikh al-Kabir. Perhaps, then, al-Bukhari’s inclusion of his reports in his Sahih followed his method of careful selection from his narrations. Let this hadith of ours be regarded as falling into that category; this is why I have included it, for it has another route:

Abu Nadrah narrated: “A shaykh from the tribe of Tafawah related to me from Abu Hurayrah the same hadith, in a longer version.”

Abu Dawud and others narrated it. I had previously documented it in al-Irwa’ (7/73/2011), where I strengthened it with corroborating reports from the hadiths of Asma’ bint Yazid and Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri. When I came across this corroboration of the Tafawi narration through Ibn Sirin, I hastened to include it here because of its exceptional rarity, and to further confirm the hadith’s authenticity. And Allah knows best.