I said: Makhūl differed and narrated it from Kathīr ibn Murrah from the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) as a mursal [ḥadīth]. It was narrated by al-Bayhaqī who said: "This is a good mursal." As al-Mundhirī said. Al-Lālakāʾī reported it from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, Makhūl, and al-Faḍl ibn Faḍālah with different isnāds from them, stopping at them, and such is considered marfūʿ because it is not said based on mere opinion. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Rajab said in "Laṭāʾif al-Maʿārif": "There are multiple ḥadīths regarding the virtue of the middle night of Shaʿbān, and there is disagreement about them. Most scholars weakened them, but Ibn Ḥibbān authenticated some and included them in his 'Ṣaḥīḥ.' Among the best is the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah who said: I missed the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)..." the ḥadīth. As for the ḥadīth of ʿĀʾishah, it is narrated by Ḥajjāj from Yaḥyá ibn Abī Kathīr from ʿUrwah from her, marfūʿ, with the wording: "Indeed, Allāh, the Exalted, descends on the middle night of Shaʿbān to the lowest heaven and forgives more than the number of hairs on the sheep of Kalb." It was reported by al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, al-Lālakāʾī, Aḥmad, and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in "al-Muntaqá min al-Musnad," and it includes the story of ʿĀʾishah missing the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) one night. Its narrators are trustworthy, but Ḥajjāj, who is Ibn Arṭāʾah, is a mudallis and he narrated it with ʿanʿanah. Al-Tirmidhī said, "I heard Muḥammad (meaning al-Bukhārī): weakening this ḥadīth." In summary, the ḥadīth, with all these paths, is authentic without doubt, and authenticity is established with fewer than these in number as long as they are free from severe weakness, as is the case with this ḥadīth. What Shaykh al-Qāsimī, may Allāh have mercy on him, transmitted in "Iṣlāḥ al-Masājid" from the people of verification and criticism is that there is nothing in the virtue of the night of..