all of whom are trustworthy, known among the narrators cited in al-Tahdhib, apart from Bishr ibn Mubashshir al-Wasiti. Ibn Hibban deemed him trustworthy (8/138), and a number of reliable narrators transmitted from him, as stated in Taysir al-Intifaʿ. Thus, a narrator of his standing has sound reports, Allah Most High willing—especially since he was corroborated.

Al-Bazzar also recorded it separately in two parts (2/431–432/2034–2035), through Ishaq ibn Idris: Hammad ibn Salamah narrated to us with this chain.

However, this Ishaq—al-Aswari—is abandoned. Al-Haythami’s judgment concerning him was inconsistent within a single chapter of his Majmaʿ. Regarding its latter clause (8/73), “Cursing a believer is like killing him,” he said:

“Al-Bazzar narrated it, and it contains Ishaq ibn Idris, who is abandoned.”

Yet, concerning the first clause, at the end of the chapter, he said:

“Al-Bazzar narrated it, and its narrators are trustworthy!”

In this, he merely followed al-Mundhiri in al-Targhib (3/285). This was one of their errors, which the three annotators of al-Targhib (3/458/4091) blindly followed as well. The reason is that Ishaq appeared without further identification, so the two of them deemed him trustworthy, assuming him to be one of the reliable narrators. Yet he is the very same person, since the chain of transmission in al-Bazzar is one and the same, from his shaykh to its endpoint. The only difference is that in one clause he is identified by his father’s name, Idris, whereas in the other he is not.

Moreover, Hammad ibn Salamah was contradicted in his chain of transmission. Al-Bukhari (6105) narrated it from Wuhayb, and Muslim (1/73) from Shuʿbah and others; all of them narrated from Ayyub, from Abu Qilabah, from Thabit ibn al-Dahhak al-Ansari, attributing it directly to the Prophet, in a hadith documented in al-Irwaʾ (8/201). Thus, they made Thabit ibn al-Dahhak the Companion narrator of the hadith and omitted Abu al-Muhallab between him and Abu Qilabah,