The hadith that al-Tirmidhī cited in suspended form was transmitted with a connected chain by al-Ṭayālisī in his Musnad (81/597), though with a weak chain of transmission. Ibn Mājah and others also narrated it in a fuller version, similar to the hadith cited above, adding:

“He would not separate them by a salām.”

This is a rejected addition. I have traced its sources and discussed it in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (1161). This addition does have a corroborating report, but its chain is very weak; for that reason, I included the hadith containing it in al-Ḍaʿīfah (6727). *

3405—“Indeed, the collector of unlawful taxes is in Hell.”

Aḥmad transmitted it (4/109): Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from Abū al-Khayr, who said:

Maslamah ibn Makhlad—who was the governor of Egypt—offered to appoint Ruwayfiʿ ibn Thābit to oversee the collection of taxes. He replied, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say...” He then mentioned the hadith.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of the two Shaykhs, apart from Ibn Lahīʿah. His reports are authentic when transmitted from him by Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd al-Miṣrī and his like, such as the Egyptian scholars known as the ʿAbādilah, as I have repeatedly established before.

For a period of time, I treated Qutaybah’s reports differently from those of the ʿAbādilah, until I came across the statement of the hadith master al-Dhahabī, which showed that Qutaybah’s reports from Ibn Lahīʿah are authentic, just like those of the ʿAbādilah—may Allah reward him well. This new finding required a review of all of Qutaybah’s reports from him, and their authentication after having previously been declared weak, provided that the narrators above him are sound, as they are in this case. Praise be to Allah, by Whose grace righteous deeds are brought to completion.

I therefore decided to transfer it from Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ, and to include it in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb, after it had been intended for inclusion in Ḍaʿīf al-Targhīb. Praise be to Allah, who guided us to this; and we would not have been guided had Allah not guided us.