Ibn Abī Shaybah also transmitted the hadith in al-Muṣannaf (12/50/12098), through another route from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah alone.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Kathīr said in al-Bidāyah (7/209):

“Ahmad alone narrated it. Its chain of transmission is sound and good, and they did not record it through this route.”

I say: It is among the hadiths that escaped al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Haythamī, who did not include it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid, even though it meets his criterion, as Ibn Kathīr’s statement indicates. *

3189—“You have entered upon an age in which its jurists are many, its preachers few, those who ask are few, and those who give are many; in it, action is better than knowledge. A time will come in which its jurists are few, its preachers many, those who ask are many, and those who give are few; in it, knowledge is better than action.”

Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr and in Musnad al-Shāmiyyīn (2/221/1225): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn Abī Salamah al-Tinnīsī narrated to us; Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Zayd ibn Wāqid related to me from Ḥarām ibn Ḥakīm, from his uncle ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd, from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, who said … and he then cited it.

I say: This is a weak chain of transmission, as al-ʿIrāqī said in Takhrīj al-Iḥyāʾ (1/7). It has two flaws:

The first is Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allāh, known as al-Samīn. He is weak, as al-Dhahabī stated in al-Kāshif and al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb; al-Haythamī likewise identified him as its flaw in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (1/127).