to have narrated from him other than this Abu Ishaq—al-Subayʿi—so he is counted among the unknown narrators. For this reason, al-Dhahabi—as was also his custom in al-Kashif—indicated the tentative nature of his being declared trustworthy by saying of him:

“He was declared trustworthy!”

Accordingly, al-Hafiz said of him:

“Acceptable.”

That is, when corroborated; he did not himself declare him trustworthy. Al-Haythami likewise indicated that the hadith was strengthened, stating—after attributing it to al-Bazzar (10/68):

“Its narrators are those of the Sahih, apart from Abu Habibah al-Taʾi. Al-Tirmidhi declared one of his hadiths authentic, and Ibn Hibban mentioned him in al-Thiqat.”

I say: The hadith to which he referred concerns one who manumits a slave at the time of death. It is cited in al-Daʿifah (1322), on account of the unknown status of this al-Taʾi. Nevertheless, al-Hafiz graded it good, and some contemporary writers followed him in this, including the annotator of Sharh al-Sunnah (6/172). Yet, in his annotations to al-Ihsan (16/197), he definitively judged the chain of the hadith under discussion to be weak.

Had he reversed his judgment, he would have been correct, for Abu Habibah al-Taʾi has a corroborating report, narrated by Jabir al-Juʿfi from ʿAmir al-Shaʿbi, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Thabit, the Prophet’s servant, who said:

ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) came with a sheet ... the hadith is like al-Tabarani’s narration from Abu al-Darda.

It was narrated by ʿAbd al-Razzaq (6/113/10164), and through his route by Ahmad (3/470–471 and 4/265), Ibn Qaniʿ in al-Muʿjam, and a number of others, whom you will find listed in al-Irwaʾ (6/34–35).