in gratitude for His enabling grace, and I ask Him for more of His bounty. Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi wrote his biography in al-Tarikh (10/291–292), through reports from a number of hadith masters who narrated from him. He also related that al-Daraqutni said:
“He was a trustworthy Baghdadi.”
He died in 268 AH.
Among those who narrated from him was Abu Bakr al-Khallal, who said:
“He was a venerable shaykh of great standing, and he enjoyed a particularly close relationship with Abu Abd Allah. He told me, ‘Whenever I entered upon Abu Abd Allah, he would say to me: I confide to you what I do not confide even to my son or to anyone else.’ I would say to him, ‘You have from me the assurance which al-Abbas gave his son Abd Allah: “Umar ibn al-Khattab honors you and gives you precedence, so never disclose one of his secrets. For if I die, it is gone; and if I live, I shall never relate it on your authority, O Abu Abd Allah!”’ So he would confide many things to him. He possessed a substantial volume transmitting from Abu Abd Allah, containing important legal questions that no one else had recorded as comprehensively.”
He then cited some of those questions from him.
As for Ammar ibn Uthman al-Halabi, he was a Basran. Humayd ibn al-Rabi and the people of Iraq also narrated from him, as stated in Ibn Hibban’s al-Thiqat (8/518). Imam Ahmad likewise declared him trustworthy, as you can see in the chain of transmission of the hadith. Apparently, this was among the benefits that al-Hasan ibn Thawwab received from Imam Ahmad, and perhaps it was contained in the volume to which Abu Bakr al-Khallal—may Allah have mercy on him—referred.
In sum, this chain of transmission is authentic, as this investigation makes clear. By Allah’s favor, it is among the precious gems of this book. Al-Mundhiri, however, in al-Targhib, indicated that it was weak by introducing it with the words, “It has been narrated from Anas …” He said:
“Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Bayhaqi narrated it, and it is found in al-Musnad and Sunan al-Nasa’i from Abu Hurayrah with a similar meaning!”