Muṭarrif ibn Ṭarīf and al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab; but neither of them commented on him. Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in al-Thiqāt (5/568). Yet they did not mention him among those from whom this Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah narrated, whereas they listed Abū Ḥāzim al-Ashjaʿī among his shaykhs. I therefore fear that it was he who narrated this hadith from Abū Hurayrah, and that it was altered by a narrator, copyist, or printer into “Abū Jaʿfar”—unless he had two kunyas, which I consider unlikely.

The first possibility is supported by the fact that a group of trustworthy narrators transmitted it from Shuʿbah through the same chain, except that they said “slave girls” in place of “the flute-player.” This gives the impression that the wording “the flute-player” was corrupted from “slave girls.” However, another route gives the wording, “the female flute-player.”

It was transmitted by al-Bukhārī (2283 and 5348), Abū Dāwūd (3425), Ibn al-Jārūd (587), Ibn Ḥibbān (5136), as well as al-Ṭaḥāwī in Mushkil al-Āthār (1/254), al-Bayhaqī (6/126), al-Ṭayālisī (3275), and Aḥmad (2/287, 382, 437–438, 454, and 480), through several routes from Shuʿbah with this chain.

Hammām corroborated him, reporting that Muḥammad ibn Juḥādah narrated to them with the wording: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited the earnings of the cupper and the earnings of a slave girl.”

Aḥmad transmitted it (2/347). Its chain of transmission is authentic according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs.

In one narration (5137), Ibn Ḥibbān added, through the route of Abū Yaʿlā, who said: Muḥammad ibn al-Minhal al-Ḍarīr narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us through the same chain—and he added: “for fear that they might prostitute themselves.”