= “its isnad is hasan,” and al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar affirmed this in Fath 10/274. He further notes in Bulugh al-Maram 4/239 (with al-San‘ani’s commentary) that Ibn Hibban declared it sahih. I have also located a strong corroborating chain for Ibn Thawban: al-Tahawi states in Mushkil al-Athar 1/88, “Abu Umayya narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Wahb ibn Atiyya narrated to us; al-Walid ibn Muslim narrated to us; al-Awza‘i narrated from Hasan ibn Atiyya,” relating the same report. This isnad is sahih; all of its transmitters are well-known and reliable, except that al-Walid ibn Muslim practises tadlis al-taswiyah and did not explicitly affirm that al-Awza‘i heard it from Hasan. God knows best. Abu Umayya’s full name is Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muslim al-Tarsusi. There is also a supporting narration for this segment from Hudhayfa, recorded by al-Tabarani in al-Awsat. Its chain includes Ali ibn Ghurab—whom several scholars deemed trustworthy, while others judged him weak—and the remaining narrators are reliable, as stated in Majma‘ 10/271. Shaykh al-Islam said: “At the very least, this hadith indicates the prohibition of imitating them, even though its outward wording suggests that whoever imitates them commits disbelief, as in the divine statement, ‘Whoever among you allies himself with them is indeed one of them.’ It is similar to what we shall shortly quote from Abdullah ibn Amr, who said: ‘Whoever settles in the land of the polytheists, celebrates their Nayruz and Mahrajan, and imitates them until he dies will be resurrected with them on the Day of Resurrection.’ This may be construed as referring to complete imitation, which entails disbelief and, by implication, forbids each part of it; or it may be taken to mean that he is counted among them only regarding the specific element in which he resembled them. If