collected and compiled what no one else had compiled.” He then discussed his biography at length.

Al-Khatib also wrote a biography of al-Hurr ibn Muhammad, in which he cited this hadith. He reported that al-Daraqutni said of him: “There is no problem with him,” and that another scholar described him as “a trustworthy shaykh.” All the remaining narrators are trustworthy and among the narrators of the six canonical collections, except al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar, who is trustworthy, as stated in al-Taqrib.

However, Khalid was not alone in narrating it; Abu Sakhr, whose name was Humayd ibn Ziyad, corroborated him with the wording: “The believer is congenial, and there is no good in one who neither befriends nor is befriended.”

Ahmad and his son ʿAbdullah recorded it (2/400). Ahmad said: Harun ibn Maʿruf narrated to us. ʿAbdullah said: I heard it myself from Harun. He said: ʿAbdullah ibn Wahb narrated to us. He said: Abu Sakhr informed me, from Abu Hazim, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with this wording.

Al-Haythami cited it (8/87, 10/273) and said: “Ahmad and al-Bazzar narrated it, and its narrators are among those of the Sahih.”

I say: All of them are among Muslim’s narrators, so it is authentic according to his conditions. Al-Hakim also recorded it (1/23), but in an abridged form, through the route of Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Razin: Harun ibn Maʿruf narrated to us; ʿAbdullah ibn Wahb narrated to us; Abu Sakhr narrated to us from Abu Hazim, from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Indeed, the believer is congenial,” the rest being the same. Thus, he omitted Abu Salih from the chain of transmission, and said: “It is authentic according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs, and I know of no hidden defect in it.”