I said: This chain of narration consists of trustworthy men, the men of the two Shaykhs [al-Bukhārī and Muslim], so it is authentic except for the ʿanʿanah [ambiguous transmission] of Ibn Jurayj, as he is known to conceal. The uncertainty in identifying his followers does not harm it, as they are all trustworthy. Mālik corroborated them without hesitation in his narration from him, saying: from al-Zuhrī from Saʿīd and Abū Salamah from Abū Hurayrah with it, and its wording is: "Preemption is in what has not been divided; when the boundaries are set and the paths are assigned, there is no preemption." It was recorded by al-Ṭaḥāwī in "Sharḥ al-Maʿānī" (2/265-266), Ibn Ḥibbān (1152), and al-Bayhaqī through various routes from Mālik with it. This chain is authentic, but al-Ṭaḥāwī criticized it because the reliable narrators from Mālik only narrated it as mursal [without mentioning Abū Hurayrah]. Then he presented it through the route of Ibn Wahb and others from Mālik from Ibn Shihāb from Ibn al-Musayyib and Abū Salamah similarly. Likewise, Yaḥyá narrated it from Mālik in "al-Muwaṭṭaʾ" (2/192). It appears—Allāh knows best—that this discrepancy is from al-Zuhrī himself, as he sometimes narrated it as mursal and sometimes connected it. This does not harm the authenticity of the ḥadīth because the narrator is trustworthy. Sometimes he is diligent and connects it, and at other times he is less so and narrates it as mursal. The connection is an addition that must be accepted. Especially since the ḥadīth is in "the two Ṣaḥīḥs" and others from the narration of Maʿmar from al-Zuhrī from Abū Salamah from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh in a similar manner.

"When one of you prays towards a sutrah, let him come close to it so that Satan does not pass between him and it." It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī in "al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr" (1/79/2) through the route of Sulaymān ibn Ayyūb al-Ṣarīfīnī, who informed us from Bishr ibn al-Sarī from Dāwūd ibn Qays al-Farrāʾ from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim from his father that the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: and he mentioned it. I said: This chain of narration consists of trustworthy men except for Sulaymān ibn Ayyūb, as he was overlooked and not translated, except by al-Samʿānī in "al-Ansāb," where he mentioned him in this lineage (al-Ṣarīfīnī) and said: