he often practices tadlīs, so if he says: 'narrated to us,' then he is trustworthy." I said: and with al-Ḥākim, it is muʿanʿan! Yes, he did say: "narrated to us by Thābit" in the narration of al-Bukhārī and Ibn Ḥibbān, so the defect is removed, and the ḥadīth is established. al-Mundhirī said (4/46): "It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī and Abū Yaʿlá from Anas, and its narrators are those of the authentic collections except for Mubārak ibn Faḍālah." al-Haythamī said (10/276): "It was narrated by al-Ṭabarānī in 'al-Awsaṭ' and Abū Yaʿlá and al-Bazzār in a similar manner, and the men of Abū Yaʿlá and al-Bazzār are those of the authentic collections, except for Mubārak ibn Faḍālah, and more than one has declared him reliable despite his weakness." I said: and in 'al-Taqrīb': "truthful, practices tadlīs and taswiyah." And I have found for him a strong corroborator, but they criticized it. It was extracted by al-Khaṭīb (9/440): ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī informed us, ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Nāqid narrated to us, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Bajalī al-Ṣaffār narrated to us, ʿAbd al-Aʿlá ibn Ḥammād al-Narsī narrated to us, Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us from Thābit with it. Then al-Khaṭīb mentioned that al-Ṣaffār uniquely narrated this ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Aʿlá ibn Ḥammād and that connecting it is an error attributed to Ḥammād ibn Salamah, because Ḥammād only narrates it from Thābit from Muṭarrif ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Shikhkhīr who said: We used to say that "no two men love each other for the sake of Allāh" and that is preserved from him, so perhaps al-Ṣaffār erred and followed the usual pattern of Thābit from Anas. I said: this al-Ṣaffār was mentioned by al-Khaṭīb as trustworthy and reliable, and he connected it, and the connection is an addition, and it is from a trustworthy source, so it must be accepted. It is possible that Ḥammād had two isnāds for it: from Thābit from Anas, and from him from Muṭarrif, so he narrated it sometimes like this, and sometimes like that, and there are many examples of this in isnāds, and the main criterion is the narration of the trustworthy, and as long as al-Ṣaffār is such, his ḥadīth is a proof if..