The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "There is no evil omen, no superstition about owls, no contagion, and no Safar."A man asked, "Messenger of Allah, we sometimes take a mangy sheep and place it among the flock, and the whole flock becomes mangy."The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, "Then who infected the first one?"
قال رسول الله ﷺ: لا طيرة ولا هامة ولا عدوى ولا صفر فقال رجل: يا رسول الله، إنا لنأخذ الشاة الجرباء فنطرحها في الغنم، فتجرب الغنم، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: فمن أعدى الأول؟
This was narrated by Ibn Majah (3539) and Ahmad (3031, 2425), and Ibn Hibban graded it sahih (6117), all of them through routes from Simak, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who related it. The wording given is that of Ibn Hibban, while Ibn Majah confined himself to the first portion. Ahmad added at the beginning, "There is no contagion." Simak's narration from Ikrima is inconsistent, but he has been corroborated.Tabari narrated it in the Musnad of Ali within Tahzib Athar (31), from Abu Kurayb, who said, Husayn bin Isa Hanafi told us, Hakam bin Abban told us, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, similarly. Hakam bin Abban was deemed reliable by Ibn Main, Nasai, and others, but the one who narrated from him, Husayn bin Isa Hanafi, is daif.Tabari also narrated it (32) from Ibn Waki, who said, Jareer told us, from Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, similarly. Yazid bin Abu Ziyad is also daif, and Ibn Waki, who is Sufyan, was truthful, but he was afflicted by his own copyist, who inserted into his material things that were not from his hadith. He was warned about this but would not accept the correction, so his hadith was set aside.These two corroborating narrations, despite their weakness, indicate that Simak was not inconsistent in this particular hadith.