1): “This is an authentic chain of transmission; its narrators are trustworthy.”

I say: In my view, it is defective because of contradiction and error on the part of Abū Khālid—whose name was Sulaymān ibn Ḥayyān al-Aḥmar. Although he was trustworthy and relied upon in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, his retention was somewhat weak, as becomes clear to anyone who reviews the imams’ statements concerning him in al-Tahdhīb. Al-Ḥāfiẓ, as was his custom, summarized them in his book al-Taqrīb, saying: “Truthful, but makes mistakes.”

A group of trustworthy narrators contradicted him, narrating it from al-Aʿmash with the wording:

“The best among you are those with the finest character.”

Abū Khālid himself agreed with them in another narration from him, as will follow. It therefore appears that he gave conflicting versions of it: at times narrating it with this wording, and at other times correctly. Here, then, are the chains to which we referred, with the correct wording:

“The best among you are those with the finest character.”

286 — “The best among you are those with the finest character.”

Al-Bukhārī (4/121) recorded it from Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth; al-Adab al-Mufrad (271), from Sufyān; Muslim (7/78), from Abū Muʿāwiyah, Wakīʿ, Ibn Numayr, and Abū Khālid al-Aḥmar; and al-Ṭayālisī (2246), from Shuʿbah. Al-Tirmidhī (1/357), through his route, and Aḥmad (2/161), also from Abū Muʿāwiyah—all narrated from al-Aʿmash, who said: “I heard Abū Wāʾil narrate from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr,” who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

He then mentioned it, adding:

“The Prophet ﷺ was neither obscene nor given to obscenity.”

Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a good, authentic hadith.”