yet neither man has ever been accused of fabrication, and in their collections the ḥadīth is transmitted by several narrators from Ḥammād with this very wording. Sulaimān ibn Ḥarb, however, differed from them and related it from him in a mawqūf form. The version preserved by the majority is preferable, as I clarified in Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd (no. 123). There I also quoted the authorities who deemed it reliable, such as al-Tirmidhī—who graded it ḥasan in some copies of his work—together with al-Mundhirī, Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd, Ibn al-Turkumānī, and al-Zaylaʿī. Imām Aḥmad likewise inclined toward its strength, for al-Athram reports in his Sunan (f. 213/1) after citing the narration:

“I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh being asked, ‘Are the two ears part of the head?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’”

The second route runs: Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr → al-Qāsim → Abū Umāmah, traced back to the Prophet. Al-Dāraquṭnī recorded it (pp. 38–39) and remarked, “Jaʿfar ibn al-Zubayr is abandoned.” I add: he was followed up by Abū Muʿādh al-Alahānī, whom Tamām al-Rāzī cited in al-Fawāʾid (1/246) through the chain ʿUthmān ibn Fāʾid → Abū Muʿādh with the same wording. This al-Alahānī I could not locate in the biographical works, and ʿUthmān ibn Fāʾid is weak.

The third route goes: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Maryam who said, “I heard Rāshid ibn Saʿd narrate from Abū Umāmah” with that same text. Al-Dāraquṭnī recorded it and said, “Abū Bakr ibn Abī Maryam is weak.”

2 – As for the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah, it has four routes.

The first: al-Dāraquṭnī (37) and Abū Yaʿlā in his Musnad (1/298) transmitted it through Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim from ʿAṭāʾ, from him, traced back to the Prophet. Al-Dāraquṭnī said, “It is not authentic.” I say: its defect lies in this Ismāʿīl, the Meccan, who is weak, and the chains that pass through him differ in their wording and links