such a statement as "false"! This is somewhat exaggerated, for Bakr was not unanimously deemed weak, let alone abandoned. Al-ʿAjlī said about him: "There is no harm in him." Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in "al-Thiqāt," although the majority regarded him as weak. The truth is that his ḥadīth is weak unless there is supporting evidence to strengthen it, which is not the case here, as will be shown by the supporting narrations. Perhaps this is why al-Tirmidhī said after it: "A good and strange ḥadīth, we do not know it except through this chain." 2 - As for the ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, it is narrated by Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Ḥazāmī, who said: Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Thaqafī told us, my uncle al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf told me from his father from his grandfather who said: The Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said, and he mentioned it. It was recorded by al-Ḥākim (4/410) who said: "Its chain is authentic, all its narrators are from Medina, and we have a ḥadīth from Mālik from Nāfiʿ which Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Walīd al-Yashkurī narrated uniquely from him." I said: Such a statement! Al-Dhahabī agreed with him, which is surprising from both of them, as I did not find anyone who documented the link between ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf and al-Ḥazāmī. His statement: "al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf" seems to attribute him to his grandfather, and I do not know the name of al-Walīd's father. Al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned in the biography of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf that his children narrated from him: Ibrāhīm, Ḥumayd, ʿUmar, Muṣʿab, and Abū Salamah. I reviewed the biography of al-Walīd attributed to each of these five in "al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl" and other sources but did not find him. And Allāh knows best