I say: The following appears in the marginal commentary on al-Majmaʿ:

“Note: Rather, the Ṣadaqah mentioned in its chain is Ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Samīn, and he is very weak, as stated in the margin of the original.”

I say: I believe that this note is from al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar, al-Haythamī’s teacher, as is everything attributed in the annotations to “the margin of the original.” His statement, “very weak,” conflicts with his limiting himself in al-Taqrīb to saying, “weak,” as was previously quoted from him. The latter is closer to what is correct, since the man is disputed over and some scholars deemed him trustworthy. His biography is given at length in Ibn ʿAsākir’s Tārīkh Dimashq, al-Tahdhīb, and other works.

Moreover, there is nothing in the chain to indicate more strongly that he is Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Samīn. Both he and Ṣadaqah ibn Khālid narrated from Zayd ibn Wāqid, and they did not mention in al-Samīn’s biography that al-Ṭarāʾifī narrated from him. The fact that the latter narrates from weak narrators is insufficient to establish this preference, for he also narrated from trustworthy narrators, including Imam Mālik, for example. So reflect!

Moreover, the hadith has a corroborating report from Abū Dharr, attributed to the Prophet, to a similar effect. Its sources, the discussion concerning it, and the demonstration that its chain of transmission is authentic have preceded at the beginning of volume six, no. 2510.

It has also been authentically reported as a statement of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd. Mālik cited it in al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (1/187), from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd said to a man:

“You are living in a time in which its jurists are many and its Quran reciters are few ...” The hadith is similar in meaning.

This report has a double break in its chain of transmission. It is among the reports that Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr missed in al-Tamhīd, for he did not include it among the hadiths of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, which number 77 hadiths there and are found at the end of volume 23 and the beginning of volume 24.