the chain of transmission to him is established. I examined every narrator in the chain and found them trustworthy, apart from al-Khaṭīb’s shaykh, ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī, for whom I could find no biographical notice. It appears that he was not from Baghdad; otherwise, al-Khaṭīb would have included him in his History. And Allah knows best.

The hadith also has a corroborating report with the wording: “There are no two men who love one another …”

Note:

All the transmissions of the hadith use the wording: “two men.” As for al-Ghazālī, he cited it in al-Iḥyāʾ (2/139) with the wording: “two.” I have not found this in any of these transmissions.

451 — “Allah has not sent down any disease except that He has also sent down for it a cure, known to whoever knows it and unknown to whoever is unaware of it.”

Aḥmad recorded it (1/377, 413, 453) through several chains. Among them is the route of Sufyān—namely Ibn ʿUyaynah—from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥabīb, who said: “I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd attribute it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.”

Ibn Mājah also recorded it (2/340) from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, who said: “Sufyān narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ,” with the same report, but without the words: “known …,” and so on.