As Salamu alaikum,
I got 2 questions which came in mind after reading the narrations and grading of Hadith as-thaqlayn
1. In the file published by this website in 2014-15, listing all chains of Thaqlayn with their grading; I find, in the part of Sunan al Kubra Nasai, 2 narrations containing chain-
أخبرنا محمد بن المثنى قال ثنا يحيى بن حماد قال ثنا أبو عوانة عن سليمان قال ثنا حبيب بن أبي ثابت عن أبي الطفيل عن زيد بن أرقم
أخبرنا محمد بن المثنى قال حدثني يحيى بن حماد قال حدثنا أبو عوانة عن سليمان قال حدثنا حبيب بن أبي ثابت عن أبي الطفيل عن زيد بن أرقم
it is said that, Habib bin thabit is a Mudallis, he makes a lot of Tadlis. He can's narrate from Sahabi Abu Tufail(ra), right?
He is a mudallis indeed, as it says in his rijal analysis-
http://muslimscholars.info/manage.php?submit=scholar&ID=11331 I find that, he is a narrator of Bukhari and Muslim. That's because he is thiqa. and maybe, because in Bukhari and Muslim he does not narrates from a sahabi by making tadlees. But there were exceptions also.
In Bukhari, he narrated from Abdullah ibn amr(ra) & in Nasai he narrated directly from Ibn Umar(ra) !!
And, is there any clearer statement that, he never met any sahaba except Aysha(ra) {read that in gadirkhum.net , but the arabic wordings of Ali ibn Madini would be better and more details about this topic}
2. As per my study, narrations containing the shorter Matn which says like- hold on Quran & Ahle bayt, thill hawdh; are weaker. {(إني تارك فيكم الثقلين كتاب الله وعترتي}
But there are exceptions in the narrations of Mu'jam al Kabir , Tabarani.
حدثنا علي بن عبد العزيز، ثنا أبو غسان مالك بن إسماعيل، ثنا إسرائيل، عن عثمان بن المغيرة، عن علي ابن ربيعة قال: لقيت زيد بن أرقم داخلا على المختار أو خارجا قال: قلت: حديثا بلغني عنك سمعت رسول الله يقول: (إني تارك فيكم الثقلين كتاب الله وعترتي؟) قال: نعم
This is graded Sahi in the pdf report.
This narration is said graded as Hasan, but doubt about abu duha meeting Zayd(ra) or not-
"حدثنا معاذ بن المثنى، ثنا علي بن المديني، ثنا جرير بن عبد الحميد، عن الحسن بن عبيد الله، عن أبي الضحى، عن زيد بن أرقم قال: قال رسول الله: (إني تارك فيكم الثقلين كتاب الله وعترتي أهل بيتي وأنهما لن يتفرقا حتى يردا علي الحوض)
Hasan, because al-Hasan bin `Ubaydullah is Mudtarib and not very strong, also there was some debate if abu al-Duha Muslim bin Subayh heard from Zayd ibn Arqam (ra) or not. Eitherway, we have previously listed strong authentic texts from Zayd (ra) that do not match this one"
There are 2 more narrations from Abu Duha. his era and the year of Death of Zaid bin Arqam(ra) says there is no problem in his meeting Zayd(ra).
then, we are avoiding these narrations, because of their incompatibility with the established Sahi narrations from MUslim, Darimi, Ahmad etc. ?