the fearful—[who narrated] from Khalid ibn Abi Imran, from Urwah, from Aishah, in a report attributed to the Prophet.

Al-Bayhaqi also recorded it in Shu'ab al-Iman (1/435/629), through another route from Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Saghani, with the same chain.

Ahmad also recorded it (6/77): Abu Salamah narrated it to us, with the same chain.

Al-Tabarani also recorded it in al-Du'a (3/1656–1657), through two other routes from Khallad ibn Sulayman, with the same chain.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, as al-Hafiz stated in al-Nukat 'ala Ibn al-Salah (2/732–733); all its narrators are trustworthy narrators used by Muslim.

The statement of its annotator, our esteemed colleague Dr. Rabi ibn Hadi:

“The correct view is that its chain is good”

has no basis in my view. For it is based upon al-Hafiz’s assessment of this Khalid ibn Abi Imran in al-Taqrib:

“Truthful.”

Yet this does not require that the report be classified merely as good, so long as Muslim included him in his Sahih. Ibn Sad, al-Ijli, and Ibn Hibban all declared him trustworthy, while Abu Hatim said:

“There is no problem with him.”

Ibn Yunus said:

“He was the jurist of the people of the Maghrib and the mufti of the people of Egypt and the Maghrib, and it used to be said that he—”

For this reason, al-Dhahabi said in al-Siyar (5/378):

“He was the jurist of the people of the Maghrib: trustworthy, firmly established, righteous, and godly.”