Isḥāq ibn Mālik, from Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥārith, from al-Qāsim, with it.

Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it (8/210/7743).

I say: Baqiyyah practised tadlīs. As for Isḥāq ibn Mālik—al-Ḥaḍramī—al-Azdī declared him weak, while Ibn al-Qaṭṭān said: “He is unknown.” Al-Azdī cited for him this hadith with the wording:

“The one who initiates the greeting of peace is nearer to Allah and His Messenger.”

Note: One of al-Ḥāfiẓ’s errors is that, in al-Fatḥ (11/16), he attributed the hadith under discussion to al-Tirmidhī. Yet you have seen that its wording differs from his wording; and he endorsed its classification as good without explaining the basis for it.

Among the confusions of the three annotators of al-Targhīb is their statement (3/416/3989):

“Good on account of its supporting evidence; narrated by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Ḥibbān (911).”

Thus, they failed to recognize the soundness of Abū Dāwūd’s chain of transmission, and graded it good on account of supporting evidence without identifying that evidence, or even alluding to any of it, as is their habit.

They then falsely attributed it to Ibn Ḥibbān. The number they coupled with it actually refers in his work to the hadith of Ibn Masʿūd:

“Those closest to me on the Day of Resurrection will be those who invoke the most blessings upon me.”

They confused this with the hadith under discussion, because, in tracing reports and attributing them to their sources, they seek help from—and indeed rely upon—indexes, rather than consulting the original works. Had they consulted them, they would not have been able to—