“And its taste is bitter.” (1) Ibn Mu‘ādh added: Anas said: We used to say that the parable of the righteous companion—and he continued the rest of the hadith.

4831 — ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-‘Aṭṭār narrated to us: Sa‘īd ibn ‘Āmir narrated to us, from Shubayl ibn ‘Azrah, from Anas ibn Mālik, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “The parable of the righteous companion”—and he mentioned something similar to it. (2)

4832 — ‘Amr ibn ‘Awn narrated to us: Ibn al-Mubārak informed us, from Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ, from Sālim ibn Ghaylān, from al-Walīd ibn Qays, from Abū Sa‘īd—or from Abū al-Haytham—from Abū Sa‘īd, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Do not keep company except with a believer, and let none eat your food except a God-fearing person.” (3)

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(1) Its chain of transmission is authentic. Yaḥyā: he is Ibn Sa‘īd, and Ibn Mu‘ādh: he is ‘Ubaydullāh ibn Mu‘ādh ibn Mu‘ādh.
It was also recorded by al-Bukhārī (5059) from Musaddad, from Yaḥyā alone, with this chain.
It was recorded by Muslim (797), Ibn Mājah (214), and al-Nasā’ī in al-Kubrā (6699) and (8027) through various routes from Yaḥyā ibn Sa‘īd alone, with it.
It was recorded by al-Bukhārī (5020), (5427), and (7560), Muslim (797), and al-Tirmidhī (3081) through various routes from Qatādah, with it.
Some of them add to it what others do not, but all of them are without his saying: “And the parable of the righteous companion… etc.”
It was recorded by al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (1175) with an addition at its end, namely his saying: “And the parable of the righteous companion… etc.”—we say: it is the one in the preceding hadith of the author—via the route of ‘Affān, from Abān ibn Yazīd, from Qatādah, from Anas, from Abū Mūsā.
It is in Musnad Aḥmad (19549) and (19614), and Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (121), (770), and (771).

(2) Its chain of transmission is authentic. See the preceding hadith, number (4829).

(3) Its chain of transmission is ḥasan due to Sālim ibn Ghaylān—for there is no harm in him—and al-Walīd ibn Qays: ṣadūq, ḥasan al-ḥadīth. The one expressing doubt in the chain is Sālim ibn Ghaylān, as explicitly stated in al-Tirmidhī. Ibn al-Mubārak: he is ‘Abdullāh. And Abū al-Haytham: he is Sulaymān ibn ‘Amr. =