by al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī, who introduced it with the words (4/131/14):

“On the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ...”

And in tracing its sources, he said:

“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and its chain may be graded good. Ibn Abī al-Dunyā and al-Aṣbahānī both narrated it through Ibn Lahīʿah, from ...”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī likewise attributed it to Ibn Abī al-Dunyā in al-Mughnī ʿan Ḥaml al-Asfār (4/454), and remained silent about it.

One indication of the inexperience of those engaged in annotating and tracing hadiths is the annotator’s statement regarding this route in Qiṣar al-Amal:

“The hadith is mursal, as can be seen. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī said ...”!! *

3428—“Do you know what this is?” They said, “Allah and His Messenger know best!” He said: “This is the human being; this is his appointed term; and this is his hope. He pursues hope, but [his appointed term] snatches him away before he reaches it.”

Imām Aḥmad recorded it (3/18): ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAmr narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī narrated to us, from Abū al-Mutawakkil, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, planted a stick before him (1), then planted another beside it, then planted a third farther away. He then said: ... and cited it.

I say: Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmārah corroborated him, narrating it from ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī al-Rifāʿī through the same chain.