6- The narration of Muḥammad b. Yazīd al-Wāsiṭī.
It is narrated by al-Dāraquṭnī in al-Ṣifāt (40).
Abū Dāwūd He said (5/96): "... The hadith with the Chain of transmission of Aḥmad b. Saʿīd is the Sahih (Authentic) one, and a group agreed with him upon it, among them: Yaḥyā b. Maʿīn and ʿAlī b. al-Madīnī. And the audition of ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Ibn al-Muthannā, and Ibn Bashshār was from a single copy, according to what has reached me." End quote.
And al-Dāraquṭnī He said in al-Ṣifāt (p. 53): "Whoever He said in it: 'From Yaʿqūb b. ʿUtba, and Jubayr b. Muḥammad,' has erred; the correct [wording] is: 'From Jubayr b. Muḥammad.'" End quote.
Abū Dāwūd He said (5/96): "And a group narrated it from Ibn Isḥāq, just as Aḥmad also He said." End quote.
Note/Benefit: Al-Dhahabī corrected Abū Dāwūd in al-ʿUluww (1/411), so He said: "Abū Dāwūd's statement that a group narrated it from Abū Isḥāq should be reflected upon, for I have never found it except from the hadith of Wahb, from his father, from him." End quote.
I say: The correct view is with Abū Dāwūd, for al-Dāraquṭnī He said in al-Ṣifāt (p. 88): "And likewise, Ḥafṣ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated it from Muḥammad b. Isḥāq with this Chain of transmission." End quote.
And the narration of Ḥafṣ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was narrated by al-Ājurrī in al-Sharīʿa (667), and therefore, the early scholars are more knowledgeable than the later ones regarding what they said.
The people of the Sunna used the hadith of the creaking as evidence, and they cited it in their works on the Sunna and creed in the context of acceptance and argumentation—as its referencing from their books has preceded.
And among the scholars who used this hadith as evidence and accepted it, or explicitly declared it Sahih (Authentic):
1- Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī (d. 256 AH) May Allah have mercy on him in his Book on creed, which is the Book Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād (105), for he mentioned it without a Chain of transmission, using it as evidence.
2- ʿUthmān b. Saʿīd al-Dārimī (d. 280 AH) May Allah have mercy on him He said in al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyya (p. 33) (Chapter on the establishment of the Lord, Blessed and Exalted, over the Throne, His elevation to the heaven, and His distinctness from the creation), and he cited the hadiths under this Chapter heading, and among them is the hadith of the creaking.
Then He said (p. 56): "The scholars have not ceased narrating these reports, copying them,
