wa-Rasāʾil Ahl al-Sunna wa-al-Athar*, creed number (39). See also his biography in Tārīkh Aṣbahān by Abū Nuʿaym (1/298), and Shadharāt al-Dhahab (2/218).

• (1) Its narrators are reliable; Mūsā is Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Mahdī, whom Ibn Ḥibbān mentioned in al-Thiqāt (9/159). Rawḥ bin ʿUbāda bin al-ʿAlāʾ al-Qaysī is reliable and virtuous. The narration of the two Ḥammāds from ʿAṭāʾ is authentic. ʿAbdullāh is Ibn Masʿūd, may God be pleased with him. Al-Shaʿbī did not hear from him; rather, he heard from: Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn al-Zubayr, Ibn ʿAmr, and other Companions, may God be pleased with him, and he heard from the senior companions of Ibn Masʿūd, may God be pleased with him. His mursal narration from him here is stronger in being used as evidence; because al-Shaʿbī, may Allah have mercy on him, is one of the senior traditionists, and he narrates this report from Ibn Masʿūd, may God be pleased with him, which relates to a direct theological and creedal issue, by omitting the one he heard it from. This is evidence of his using it as proof and accepting it; otherwise, how could he permit mentioning it if it were not established according to him? The discussion on accepting the Companion's opinion and the Successor's opinion in such matters has already preceded, as well as the statement of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, regarding something similar to this, so see it under report number (39).
• (2) And its chain of transmission is: Ibn Maʿbad said: Muḥammad bin Ḥātim narrated to us: al-Faḍl bin ʿAbbās narrated to us: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Thābit narrated to us, from Yazīd bin Hārūn, from ʿAbbād bin Manṣūr, who said: I asked al-Ḥasan and ʿIkrima... the report. [Quoted from: Fatḥ al-Ḥamīd fī Sharḥ Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (4/1675)]