I say: This is a good chain of transmission, Allah willing. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among those included in al-Tahdhib, except for Muslim ibn al-Walid ibn Rabah. Ibn Abi Hatim mentioned him and said:

“... A client of the family of Abu Dhibab, he narrated from al-Muttalib ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hantab. Al-Bukhari had listed this name under the entry ‘al-Walid ibn Muslim ibn Abi Rabah,’ but Abu Zurʿah said: ‘It is in fact Muslim ibn al-Walid.’ My father said the same.”

He did not mention any criticism or accreditation concerning him. In al-Bukhari’s al-Tarikh (4/2/153/2534), he appears as stated above, but with the names reversed. What is correct is what appears in al-Jarh, as the Yemeni editor, may Allah have mercy on him, decisively affirmed in his notes on al-Tarikh. Al-Hafiz al-Mizzi likewise listed him among those who narrated from al-Muttalib ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hantab in his Tahdhib al-Kamal.

Ibn Hibban also mentioned him briefly in al-Thiqat, saying (7/446):

“Muslim ibn al-Walid: he narrated from his father, from Abu Hurayrah; Ibn al-Had and al-Darawardi narrated from him.”

This contains an important benefit not mentioned in the two works: namely, that these two trustworthy men narrated from him—al-Darawardi, who is ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Muhammad, the narrator of this hadith from him; and Ibn al-Had. Ibn Hibban included Ibn al-Had’s hadith from him in his Sahih (4158, al-Ihsan). I had previously included it in al-Irwa’ (7/64), before coming across this biographical notice in al-Thiqat; so let this benefit be taken and transferred there.

Al-Mundhiri, and then al-Haythami, did not come across it, and the grandfather’s name, Rabah, was corrupted for them into al-ʿAbbas. Thus al-Mundhiri said (2/184/4):