from Qatādah, from Muṭarrif, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording. He added at its end:
“Yazīd ibn Hārūn said: ‘If they are not the scholars of hadith, then I do not know who they are.’”
I say: All the narrators in this chain are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ, except al-Tustarī, who is not trustworthy. He was accused of lying and of stealing hadith. Yet it appears that the hadith has a basis through a route other than his, for al-Suyūṭī mentioned it in al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr (1/341/1), as narrated by Ibn Qāniʿ, Ibn ʿAsākir, and al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in al-Mukhtārah, from Qatādah, from Anas. He then said:
“Al-Bukhārī said: ‘This is an error. Rather, it is Qatādah, from Muṭarrif, from ʿImrān.’”
I say: This is an explicit statement by al-Bukhārī that the hadith is preserved from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn.
Know that this hadith is authentic, established, and widely transmitted from a number of the Companions:
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Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān: recorded by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and Aḥmad.
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Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah: recorded by both of them.
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Thawbān, the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace): recorded by Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, Aḥmad (5/278, 279), Abū Dāwūd in al-Fitan, and al-Ḥākim (4/449).
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ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir: recorded by Muslim.
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Qurrah al-Muzanī: in al-Musnad (3/436 and 5/34), through an authentic chain; al-Tirmidhī also declared it authentic.
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Abū Umāmah: in al-Musnad (5/269).
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ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn: also recorded by Aḥmad (5/429, 437), through other routes from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, with the same wording but without the addition. It was likewise narrated by Abū Dāwūd at the beginning of al-Jihād, and by al-Ḥākim (4/450), who declared it authentic; al-Dhahabī concurred.