Al-ʿUqaylī recorded it in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (4/366), in Huyyāj’s biographical notice, and said:

“No one corroborates him in this, nor in anything he narrates. Yet the hadith is known through another route, with an acceptable chain of transmission.”

I say: He seems to be referring to the preceding narration. Allah knows best.

The latter part of the hadith also has another route from Abu Hurayrah, with the wording:

“O people! I am only a mercy bestowed.”

Its sources were previously cited in the first volume under no. 490.

The first sentence also has a supporting narration from Kurayz ibn Usāmah, attributed to the Prophet.

Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it with a weak chain of transmission. I had mentioned it under hadith (3220—al-Ḍaʿīfah), to confirm that Abu Bakr al-Salāmasī’s wording of the hadith under discussion—“a punishment” in place of “one who curses”—is anomalous. Allah, Most High, knows best.

Among the peculiarities of Shaykh al-Ghumārī is his neglect in defending an authentic hadith—indeed, his giving readers the impression that it is weak—because of his preoccupation with criticizing Shaykh al-Manāwī and pursuing his slips, some of which are merely formal and go no further than a summary of the criticism directed at him. An example is this supporting narration: al-Manāwī deemed it defective on the grounds of unknown narrators. The most that can be said is that, in al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, he quoted al-Haythamī as saying that its chain contained narrators whom he did not know, while in al-Ṣaghīr he said, “It contains an unknown narrator.” Yet Shaykh al-Ghumārī pedantically devoted an entire page (3/30–31) to criticizing him and demonstrating al-Manāwī’s inconsistency! As for the hadith itself, he said nothing about it, thereby giving readers the impression that it was weak. How could he fail to do so, when he had made clear that it contains three unknown narrators?! It was plainly his duty to explain to his readers that the text of the hadith is authentic, since Muslim narrated it through another route from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him. May Allah guide you!