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The chain of transmission of this hadith, as al-Dāraquṭnī clarified in al-ʿIlal 4/262–264, is such that some narrate it from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah, from his father, as it appears here with the author; and some narrate it from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah, from Abū al-Raddād—and it is also said: al-Raddād—from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, as in the following transmission with the author. Al-Dāraquṭnī and others favored the mention of Abū al-Raddād in the chain, while others, such as al-Bukhārī, Ibn Ḥibbān, and others, deemed it correct not to mention him. And God knows best.

This Abū al-Raddād was mentioned by al-Wāqidī among the Companions, and he said: He lived in Medina. Likewise, Ibn Ḥibbān and Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said: He had companionship [with the Prophet]. Abū Nuʿaym, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and Ibn al-Athīr followed them and mentioned him among the Companions. Abū Nuʿaym narrated this hadith of his, and in his narration appears the following text: From Sufyān, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf visited a man from among the Companions of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, called Abū al-Raddād. Abū al-Raddād said: "The best of them and the most maintaining of ties—as far as I know—is Abū Muḥammad..." Then he said: Bishr ibn Shuʿayb narrated it, from his father, from al-Zuhrī, likewise, and he said: He was among the Companions. Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned him in al-Iṣābah 7/137–138 in the first section. Al-Ṭabarī declared this hadith of his authentic in Tahdhīb al-Āthār, in the section edited by ʿAlī Riḍā (164). Thus, according to the school of al-Dāraquṭnī, the hadith is authentic, because it is the narration of a Companion from a Companion; and according to the school of others, it is interrupted (munqaṭiʿ).

This hadith has also been narrated through another path from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, as will be explained later.

See what follows. Sufyān: he is Ibn ʿUyaynah, and Musaddad: he is Ibn Musarhad.

It was also transmitted by al-Tirmidhī (2019) via the path of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, with this chain, and he said: A sound hadith.

It is in the Musnad of Aḥmad (1686), and we had previously ruled there that Abū al-Raddād is unknown (majhūl), so this should be corrected here.

It was also transmitted by Aḥmad (1659), Ibn Abī al-Dunyā in Makārim al-Akhlāq (205), Abū Yaʿlā (841), al-Kharāʾiṭī in Masāwiʾ al-Akhlāq (263), al-Shāshī in his Musnad (252), and al-Ḥākim 4/157, via the path of Hishām al-Dastuwāʾī, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qāriẓ, from his father, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar declared its chain sound in Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, but he was not correct in that, because this chain has been disputed regarding Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, as al-Dāraquṭnī reported in al-ʿIlal 4/295, and he clarified that some narrated it from =