al-Azdī, and ending with al-ʿAsqalānī. Al-Dhahabī mentioned Zakariyyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Ṣuhbānī in his Mīzān and said:

“Yaḥyā al-Ḥammānī narrated from him. Al-Azdī said: ‘His hadith is rejected.’”

Al-ʿAsqalānī endorsed this in al-Lisān, adding:

“He—that is, al-Azdī—cited for him a report from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh ...”

I say: he then cited the hadith! It is most strange that Ahmad’s narration through Ṭalq ibn ʿAlī should have escaped their notice on the one hand, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim’s biographical entry on this Zakariyyā—reporting that a number of people narrated from him, as mentioned above—on the other. Thus, no attention should be paid to al-Azdī’s statement concerning him, “His hadith is rejected,” for it is an error arising from his lack of awareness of the reports of the reliable narrators mentioned above from Zakariyyā, and from his assumption that no one besides Yaḥyā al-Ḥammānī had narrated from him. This is especially so since he is known for being unduly harsh and severe in his criticism of narrators. And Allah knows best.

*3436. (Hardness of heart and roughness are in the East, while faith is among the people of the Hijaz.)

It is narrated from Jābir—may Allah be pleased with him—and it has several routes from him:

The first: Abū al-Zubayr said that he heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said ... and he mentioned it.

It was recorded by Muslim (1/53), Abū ʿAwānah (1/60), Ibn Ḥibbān (9/204/7252), and Ahmad in al-Musnad (3/335) and Faḍāʾil al-Ṣaḥābah (2/863/1611), through Ibn Jurayj, who said: “Abū al-Zubayr informed me of it.”

Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah also narrated it from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, with the same wording, except that he said: