ʿAbd Allah said: “I said to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: So-and-so—a man among the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, whom ʿUmar recognized—related to me. I said: He related to me that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: …” He then cited the hadith in full, including the words: “and understanding of religion.”

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy narrators of al-Bukhārī, except for this al-Muthannā. A number of scholars, including Ibn Ḥibbān (7/503), declared him trustworthy. His mention was omitted from the two works entitled al-Tahdhīb. Abū Ḥātim said: “His hadiths are acceptable.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ said in al-Taqrīb: “There is no objection to him.”

Al-Dārimī then related, through his aforementioned chain from Abū Usāmah: “Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah related to me that Abū Qilābah said:

“ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz came out to lead us in the noon prayer, carrying a sheet of paper. He then came out to us for the afternoon prayer while it was still with him. I said to him: ‘Commander of the Believers, what is this document?’ He replied: ‘It is a hadith that ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allah related to me. I was impressed by it, so I wrote it down.’ And there was this hadith in it.”

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission according to al-Bukhārī’s criteria.

Note: In the biography of the aforementioned Bakr ibn Bishr al-Tirmidhī, al-Ḥāfiẓ stated, on the authority of Abū Ḥātim, that the name had been transposed, and that the correct form is: “Bishr ibn Bakr.” But let it be examined where Abū Ḥātim said this! His son recorded it as it appears in the chain of transmission and reported from his father that he was “unknown,” as stated above. It likewise appears this way in his entry on his shaykh, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Suwwār. And Allah knows best.