Furthermore, Abū al-Khayr in the chain of transmission was Marthad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Yazanī al-Miṣrī.

Al-Ṭabarānī also recorded the hadith in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (5/18/4493) through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ: Ibn Lahīʿah narrated it to me with this chain, adding after the hadith:

“That is, the collector of unlawful taxes.”

Al-Mundhirī deemed it defective in al-Targhīb (1/279/3) on account of Ibn Lahīʿah, and al-Haythamī (3/88) followed him, as did the three annotators of al-Targhīb (1/617), who simply followed their lead. They did not distinguish between Aḥmad’s narration and al-Ṭabarānī’s narration. Yet al-Mundhirī introduced it with the words, “On the authority of Abū al-Khayr ...,” which indicates that he considered it good, or close to good.

As for its annotators, they applied the usual ruling to a hadith narrated by Ibn Lahīʿah, saying:

“Weak!” *

3406—“What do you consider the raqūb—the one bereft of children—to be among you?” They said, “The one who has no children.” He said, “That is not the raqūb; rather, it is the man who has not sent any of his children ahead of him. He said: “And what do you consider the strong wrestler to be among you?” They said, “The one whom men cannot throw down.” He said, “It is not that; rather, it is the one who controls himself when angry.”

Muslim recorded it (8/30), as did al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad (no. 153), al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (4/68) and Shuʿab al-Īmān (6/306/8273 and 7/136/9756), Aḥmad (1/382), and Abū Yaʿlā (9/96–97/5162). Ibn Ḥibbān also recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (4/264/2939), through him, by several routes from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from al-Ḥārith ibn Suwayd