I said: This is an authentic chain of transmission; all its narrators are trustworthy and meet Muslim’s criteria, apart from Ahmad ibn Ali—namely, Abu Ya‘la al-Mawsili, the hadith master and compiler of al-Musnad—who was himself a trustworthy hadith master.

The hadith has another chain, recorded by al-Hakim (4/457) through Qatadah, from Abu Mijlaz, from Qays ibn ‘Abbad, from Abd Allah ibn Amr, who said: He then cited it, similar to the above but at greater length, as a report attributed to the Companion. It carries the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet. Al-Hakim said:

“An authentic chain of transmission according to the criteria of both of them, though attributed to the Companion.”

Al-Dhahabi concurred with him. Al-Hakim also records (4/455–456) another chain from him, likewise attributed to the Companion.

It also has a corroborating report, attributed to the Prophet, from Abu Hurayrah:

“By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, this Ummah will not perish until a man approaches a woman and has intercourse with her in the road. The best of them on that day will be the one who says, ‘If only you concealed her behind this wall.’”

Abu Ya‘la recorded it in his al-Musnad (folio 291/2), through Khalaf ibn Khalifah, who said: Yazid ibn Kaysan narrated to us, from Abu Hazim, from Abu Hurayrah.

I said: The narrators of its chain are trustworthy and are narrators used by Muslim, except for this Khalaf, who became confused in later life. He also claimed to have seen Amr ibn Hurayth, the Companion, but Ibn ‘Uyaynah and Ahmad rejected this claim, as stated in al-Taqrib.

Al-Haythami said in Majma‘ al-Zawa’id (8/331):

“Abu Ya‘la narrated it, and its narrators are narrators of the Sahih collections!”

It has another chain from Abu Hurayrah, but its chain is feeble, with the following addition at its end:

“Such a person among them will be like Abu Bakr and Umar among you.”