hadith: Usamah ibn Zayd and Salih ibn Kaysan said: from him, from his father. Muhammad ibn Ishaq, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn Hulaym, and ʿAbd al-Hamid ibn Jaʿfar said: from him, from Ibn Kaʿb ibn Malik, from Abu Umamah.

The narration of these three appears to be more preponderant, since they are more numerous and possess additional knowledge. One who has knowledge is proof against one who does not.

These three then differed over the name of Ibn Kaʿb: the first two named him ʿAbd Allah, whereas ʿAbd al-Hamid ibn Jaʿfar named him ʿAbd al-Rahman. There is no doubt in my view that his narration is sounder than theirs, for he is trustworthy and Muslim relied upon him, as he did the rest of the narrators. Thus, in strengthening the hadith, reliance is placed upon this route, because its narrators are trustworthy and it is free of hidden defects. Let us therefore cite its chain of transmission in full, to give further assurance of what we have stated.

Al-Tabarani, may Allah have mercy on him, said: Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Hadrami related to us; Ahmad ibn ʿAsim ibn ʿAnbasah al-ʿAbbādāni informed us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Himran informed us; ʿAbd al-Hamid ibn Jaʿfar informed us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Thaʿlabah, from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Kaʿb ibn Malik, who said: “I heard your father say: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say...” He then cited it in the wording mentioned above, which is the wording of Ibn Majah.

Muhammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Hadrami was a trustworthy hadith master, known by the epithet Matin. His biography appears in Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 2/210.

Ahmad ibn ʿAsim ibn ʿAnbasah al-ʿAbbādāni was truthful, as al-Hafiz states in al-Taqrib. Ibrahim ibn Marzuq corroborated him in al-Tahawi, and he is unobjectionable. The remaining narrators are trustworthy transmitters cited by Muslim, apart from ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Umamah, who is likewise truthful.

What prompted me to examine this matter closely was that I saw al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri transmit from some hadith scholars something suggesting that they considered the hadith weak, yet he did not clarify the matter, even briefly, despite the occurrence of