“He would omit the intermediary in reports he heard from Thābit, from Anas, and narrate them directly from Anas.”

For this reason, in his Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān frequently narrates through him from Anas; see the Muʾassasah Index (p. 123).

It also has a more complete corroborating mursal report from ʿAlqamah ibn Waqqāṣ.

Ibn Abī Shaybah (14/355–356) and Ibn Mardawayh—as cited in Fatḥ (7/288)—recorded it through the route of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah ibn Waqqāṣ, [from his father] (1), from his grandfather, with similar wording. It states that the one who said, “We shall not say as ...,” was Saʿd ibn Muʿādh.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ made no comment on it, and its chain is good.

As for what al-Ṭabarānī narrated in al-Kabīr (4/209), from the hadith of Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, at greater length and with a similar account, in which the speaker is identified as al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr: its chain of transmission is not established, even though al-Haythamī graded it good (6/73–74), for it includes Ibn Lahīʿah, who is weak—assuming, moreover, that it is free of defect from al-Ṭabarānī’s shaykh, Bakr ibn Sahl, whom al-Nasāʾī declared weak. It also contains a section that is, in my view, very rejected: the response of the Anṣār after the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, consulted them. They said:

“No, by Allah, we have no strength to fight the enemy; rather, we wanted the caravan!” Then he said, “What do you think about fighting these people?” We gave the same reply, whereupon al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr said ...”

I then reconsidered and said: It does not contain the statement of the Anṣārī—or of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh—including the phrase, “Bark al-Ghimād ...”; rather, it contains what comes before it. This portion has come to be included in al-Miqdād’s statement at the Battle of Badr, for Ṭāriq ibn Shihāb narrated: I heard Ibn Masʿūd say: