I said: the chain is authentic and not weakened by Hishām ibn ʿAmmār due to these corroborations, although al-Ṭaḥāwī criticized it in "al-Mushkil" but not in "Maʿānī al-Āthār"; he said: "The elders from Juhaynah were not named, and we do not know if they were Companions of the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam)." I said: This is of no consequence, because even if they were not all Companions—and I find this unlikely—they are undoubtedly from their followers, like ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUkaym. Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned him in "al-Ṣaḥābah" from his book "al-Thiqāt" (3/247), and said: "He met the Prophet (ṣallá Allāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) but did not hear anything from him..." then he mentioned his ḥadīth. Al-Khaṭīb documented him in "al-Tārīkh" (10/3-4) as having heard from a group of Companions, and a group of reliable Followers narrated from him, other than al-Qāsim ibn Mukhaimarah, then he said: "He was trustworthy." Thus, his teachers in the ḥadīth—even assuming none were Companions—are from the senior Followers, and a higher rank than Ibn ʿUkaym. If they were not as trustworthy as him—which I also find unlikely—they are at least unknown, but they are a group whose anonymity is compensated by their number, as al-Sakhāwī and others have said about other than this ḥadīth; he said—may Allāh have mercy on him—in a ḥadīth narrated by several of the Companions' children: "Its chain is acceptable, and it is not harmed by the anonymity of those unnamed among the Companions' children; for they are a group whose anonymity is compensated by their number." Refer to it in "Ghayat al-Maram" (272/471). I said: Therefore, the ḥadīth is authentic and connected, because they narrate from the book of the Prophet