I say: The answer to this attempt to declare it defective is evident from what has preceded. In sum, it amounts to alleging error on the part of a trustworthy narrator without proof. There is another point to be made here: accepting this objection would entail attributing concealment in transmission to Hafs ibn Ghiyath—something which, to my knowledge, no one has ever asserted. Whatever entails falsehood is itself false.

Salm ibn Junadah also corroborated the two aforementioned narrators in their transmission from Hafs ibn Ghiyath, as recorded by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Hibban (1369). Thus, the hadith is Hafs’s narration, and he is an authoritative narrator; it may not be rejected without proof. *

3179—(Indeed, your Lord loves praise.)

It was recorded by al-Bukhari in al-Adab al-Mufrad (859, 861, and 868) and al-Tarikh (1/445/1425); al-Nasa’i in al-Sunan al-Kubra (4/416/7745); al-Hakim (3/614); Ahmad (3/435); al-Tabarani in al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir (1/258/820–825); and al-Tahawi in Sharh al-Ma‘ani (2/372), through several routes from al-Hasan, from al-Aswad ibn Sari‘, who said: “I was a poet, so I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, I composed verses praising my Lord.’ He said: ‘Indeed, your Lord loves praise.’” He then cited it and said no more to me than that.

Al-Hakim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: This is so in light of al-Bukhari’s narration in both his books, for al-Hasan explicitly stated direct transmission from al-Aswad through two chains. Were it not for that, it would have been rendered defective by his use of the ambiguous “from” formula, since al-Hasan was known for concealment in transmission. Those who categorically maintained that al-Hasan did not hear from al-Aswad cited no proof except a report with no known chain of transmission: that al-Aswad was not seen after the killing of Uthman; or the statement of some of them that al-Aswad died on the day of the Battle of the Camel, in the year 36 AH. Whereas al-Hasan only arrived—