“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ, and Abū Yaʿlā narrated it in abridged form. Its narrators are trustworthy, but al-Ṭabarānī’s chain of transmission is weak.”

Al-Ḥākim also transmitted the hadith (2/141) through Maḥbūb ibn Mūsā, who said: Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī narrated to us from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, through the same chain. This is how he reported it: he did not mention “from Abū Saʿd” in its chain of transmission. He then said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic,” and al-Dhahabī concurred with him.

Then two matters became apparent to me:

The first is that I found no one who gave Muḥammad ibn Asʿad the kunyah Abū Saʿd; rather, they referred to him as Abū Saʿīd, as did Ibn Abī Ḥātim in al-Jarḥ (3/1/208), al-Dūlābī in al-Kunā, and others. Moreover, Ibn Abī Ḥātim did not list ʿAmr ibn Murrah among his teachers, nor Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī among those who narrated from him.

The second is that, after some time, I came across al-Ṭabarānī’s chain of transmission in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ. There, at (6/5/5628), it is transmitted through Abū Saʿīd al-Baqqāl. It was narrated by Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad, Abū Nuʿaym, who said: ʿAlī ibn Hāshim ibn al-Barīd narrated to us from him, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Abū al-Bakhtarī, from her, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“Every treacherous person will have a banner on the Day of Resurrection. The Muslims’ pledge of protection is one, and even the least of them may grant it. Whoever violates a Muslim’s pledge of protection is subject to the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people; neither repentance nor ransom will be accepted from him.”

It then occurred to me that Abū Saʿd in the first route may perhaps be Abū Saʿd al-Baqqāl.