and ʿAbd Allāh. The first two are well-known trustworthy narrators. Thus, if the chain of transmission rests on either of them, it is authentic. Otherwise, ʿAbd Allāh is unknown except in this hadith, in the version narrated by Abū Yaʿlā in his Great Musnad, as the hadith master mentioned in al-Nukat al-Ẓirāf (1/38). He narrated it from Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dūraqī, from Mubashshir ibn Ismāʿīl, from al-Awzāʿī, with this chain of transmission, but said: “from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, that his father informed him.”
I say: Al-Dūraqī was trustworthy and a master hadith scholar, but I consider either him or his shaykh, Mubashshir ibn Ismāʿīl, to have made an anomalous deviation in naming him. There are three reasons which, upon consideration, leave no doubt as to its anomalous nature:
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He contradicted ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Saʿīd—the shaykh of al-Nasāʾī, whom he declared reliable by saying, “There is no harm in him”—who said: “Mubashshir narrated to us ...,” and then related it without naming him.
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If we do not say that al-Dūraqī was the one who deviated—because of his strong retention, and because ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Saʿīd was less proficient in retention—then we must say that this Mubashshir ibn Ismāʿīl was the one who deviated, for he contradicted the group: al-Walīd ibn Muslim in the narrations of Ibn Ḥibbān, Abū al-Shaykh, and al-Baghawī; Hayqal ibn Ziyād in those of al-Ḥārith and Abū Nuʿaym; and al-Walīd ibn Mazīd in that of al-Bayhaqī. There is no doubt that the report of a group is stronger than that of a single narrator, especially when he sometimes agrees with them, as is the case here.
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The hadith has also come through another route from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, with a different chain from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, in which he named his son Muḥammad. Muʿādh ibn Hānī said: “Ḥarb ibn Shaddād narrated to us; Yaḥyā narrated to me; al-Ḥaḍramī ibn Lāḥiq al-Tamīmī narrated to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Ubayy ibn Kaʿb narrated to me: ‘My grandfather had a date storehouse ...’”
Al-Nasāʾī recorded it thus in 961: “My grandfather had ...” This means—as is apparent—