17—Hadith 455:

Firstly—The following should be added to the sources cited for its transmission: Ali ibn al-Ja'd in his Musnad (2/1124–1125); through him, Abu Ya'la in his Musnad (6/143), no. 3419; and from Abu Ya'la, al-Khatib (11/341). Al-Bazzar also transmitted it from Mubarak ibn Fudalah, with the same wording, in (4/231/3600—Kashf al-Astar).

Al-Hafiz said in Mukhtasar Zawa'id al-Bazzar (2/2309):

“This is a good chain of transmission!”

That is what he said, even though Mubarak, in his own view, practised tadlis al-taswiyah—concealment in transmission by omitting an intermediary—as I had previously cited from him there. I shall set out a detailed examination of this matter.

The wording in this version of al-Bazzar is “two” in place of “two men.” I had noted beneath it that I had not found this wording in any of the sources mentioned there. This is therefore a new finding, but it has no noteworthy value, since it is anomalous and contradicts the reports of the trustworthy narrators from Mubarak, as well as those of his corroborating narrators, as will follow. Its value does lie, however, in showing that al-Ghazali did not originate that wording, but merely transmitted it.

Secondly—There I had traced a strong corroborating narration for Mubarak ibn Fudalah, namely that of Hammad ibn Salamah, and I answered al-Khatib’s erroneous assessment of him. I then found a second corroborating narrator. Al-Tabarani said in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat (1/163/1/3045): Ibrahim related to us: Nasr related to us: Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr al-Yahmadi related to us: Thabit al-Bunani related to us, with the same report. He then said:

“No one narrated it from Thabit except Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr.”

That is what he said, but it is refuted by what has preceded.

Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr al-Yahmadi—this is how his tribal attribution appears in al-Mu'jam, and likewise it appears