al-Haythamī in al-Majmaʿ (6/14): “Al-Bazzār narrated it, and its chain includes an unnamed narrator!”
He was referring to this ʿAbd Allāh, for all the other narrators in its chain have biographical entries in al-Tahdhīb. It is as though al-Haythamī had not come across him in the three books, especially Ibn Ḥibbān’s al-Thiqāt. This is strange on his part—by Allah!—for he took particular interest in it, arranging it alphabetically so that a researcher could easily locate a narrator. Yet how true is the saying: “My Lord neither errs nor forgets.”*
- “Remind him of Allah three times. If he refuses, then fight him. If he kills you, you will be in Paradise; and if you kill him, he will be in the Fire”—meaning, one who aggresses against another.
It was narrated by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh (4/1/198–199), al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (8/336), Aḥmad (3/422), al-Bazzār (2/365/1864), and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (19/39/83), through the route of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Muṭṭalib, from his brother al-Ḥakam, from their father al-Muṭṭalib ibn Ḥanṭab, from Quhayd al-Ghifārī, who said:
A man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), saying, “Messenger of Allah, what if an aggressor attacks me?” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, “Remind him of Allah”—and he instructed him to remind him three times—… the hadith.
Al-Bayhaqī said:
“Thus he reported it!”
He was indicating that it contains a hidden defect, which al-Bukhārī explicitly identified when he said immediately afterward:
“This is mursal.”
As for al-Haythamī, he discussed it in general terms, as was usually his practice. After attributing it to Aḥmad, al-Bazzār, and al-Ṭabarānī (6/245), he said: