Isḥāq reported: Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb narrated to us; Musaddad narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Ibn Jurayj, from ʿAṭāʾ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who attributed it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: ... and he mentioned it.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission; all its narrators are known and trustworthy. Al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq was al-Azharī al-Isfarāyinī.

As for the one who narrated from him, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Muqriʾ, he too was one of al-Khaṭīb’s shaykhs. Al-Khaṭīb gave him a favourable biographical notice in al-Tārīkh and said (12/98):

“We wrote from him. He was truthful, virtuous, and learned in Quranic readings. He died in 415 AH.”

As for Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb, he was Abū Muḥammad al-Baṣrī, a trustworthy hadith master. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī included his biography in al-Tadhkirah (1/660).

All those above him are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the Two Ṣaḥīḥs, apart from Musaddad—who was Ibn Musarhad—one of al-Bukhārī’s shaykhs. Musaddad also recorded it in his Musnad with the chain mentioned above, as found in al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliyah al-Musnadah by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar (1/42/2).

In its introduction, he mentioned two chains from Musaddad other than al-Bayhaqī’s chain from him; their narrators thus corroborate Musaddad. The chain is therefore sound, and all praise is due to Allah.

Al-Mundhirī cited it in al-Targhīb (2/123/15) as a narration from al-Bayhaqī, indicating its strength. For this reason, I included it in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb, in its second volume (p. 28/1134), which is currently being printed. May Allah make its publication easy for us. (1)

As for the three annotators of al-Targhīb in their new edition, they arbitrarily declared it weak (2/147/1722/2), without explaining the reason in such a case, even in the briefest terms. This was due to their ignorance and inability to research the biographical notices of narrators, particularly when they are not among