“If you dispute over a road, then make it seven cubits wide.”

Similar wording is found in Musnad Ahmad (2/495) and Sunan al-Bayhaqi (6/54).

Al-Hafiz said in Fath al-Bari (5/119):

“Ibn ʿAdi included this hadith among the reports uniquely narrated by Jarir ibn Hazim, so it is one of the rare reports in the Sahih. However, it has a supporting narration in Muslim, from the hadith of ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Harith from Ibn ʿAbbas; and al-Ismaʿili narrated it through Wahb ibn Ismaʿil, from his father: ‘I heard al-Zubayr ibn Khirrit.’”

I say: His statement, “in Muslim, from the hadith of ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Harith from Ibn ʿAbbas,” appears to be a slip of the pen, for Muslim only narrated it—as mentioned above—from the report of ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Harith from Abu Hurayrah.

What he mentioned from Ibn ʿAdi is because al-Zubayr ibn Khirrit—despite being trustworthy—contradicted a number of trustworthy narrators in both its text and its chain of transmission.

As for the text, he added the term mītāʾ (the broad public road), and this is an anomalous addition, occurring only in al-Mustamli’s narration from al-Bukhari. Therefore, al-Hafiz said:

“No one corroborated him in this, and it is not soundly preserved in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah.”

He then cited three chains of transmission for it, concluding with the words:

“Each of the three chains is subject to criticism.”

Discussion of them will follow shortly, Allah willing.

As for the chain of transmission, al-Zubayr ibn Khirrit contradicted the group, among whom were some trustworthy narrators, who said: from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas—as follows immediately after this.