(5/320), and al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsīr (11/73), through Qutaybah and Ḥajjāj, from al-Layth, from Khālid ibn Yazīd, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, that Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh said:

One day, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came out to us and said: … and then mentioned it.

Al-Tirmidhī said:

“This hadith has been narrated from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, by more than one route, with a chain of transmission sounder than this one. This is a mursal hadith, for Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl did not meet Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh.”

Al-Bukhārī cited it in suspended form (7281/M), following the hadith of Saʿīd ibn Minā from Jābir—which will be mentioned later.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said in al-Nukat al-Ẓirāf (2/184), commenting on al-Tirmidhī’s statement:

“Al-Ḥākim has transmitted it in al-Mustadrak through Abū Ṣāliḥ—the scribe of al-Layth—from al-Layth, adding ʿAṭāʾ between Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl and Jābir.”

I say: It appears there (4/393), and he declared it authentic, with al-Dhahabī concurring.

Al-Tirmidhī’s narration—without mentioning ʿAṭāʾ—is sounder, for several reasons:

First: This Abū Ṣāliḥ, whose name was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ, was truthful but made many mistakes. His written transmission was reliable, but he was prone to inadvertence, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Taqrīb.

Second: As noted above, two reliable narrators—Qutaybah and Ḥajjāj—narrated it from al-Layth without him.

Third: Abū Ṣāliḥ was inconsistent in reporting it: on one occasion he narrated it in this manner, while on another he reported it through Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, from Jābir.