There is bias in this, and an injustice to the sunnah and its narrators. Not everyone whom some critics have spoken against should have his hadith deemed defective. How many narrators relied upon by the two Sahih collections have been criticized by some of the imams—including this man, and even his teacher, Ikrimah! In such a case, one should refer to the discipline and principles of narrator criticism and accreditation, consulting those who are knowledgeable in it, while benefiting from the hadith masters who preceded us in this field. This is unlike some novices who imagine that they possess some share of this knowledge, though they have not yet caught even its scent.

Here is the hadith master al-Dhahabi, when writing the biographical notice of this Amr: he began it by saying:

“Truthful; his hadith is cited in the two Sahih collections, in their main texts.”

He then cited the statements of the imams concerning him, and followed them with:

“His hadith is sound and good, though falling below the highest rank of authentic.”

For this reason, he included him in his valuable treatise, Narrators Criticized in a Manner That Does Not Warrant Rejection (155/264).

Similar is the hadith master’s statement in al-Taqrib:

“Trustworthy; he may at times err.”

The hadith also has a corroborating report from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, containing it in full, except that in place of the clause concerning the blind person, it states: “Cursed is whoever marries a woman and her daughter.” Its chain of transmission contains two weak narrators; therefore, I included it in al-Da'ifah (The Weak Series) (5368), since I found no corroborating report for this clause in it, nor for its opening part.

Its first, second, and likewise its fourth clauses—though the fourth is worded: “Allah has cursed whoever curses his parents”—