A man asked, "Messenger of Allah, who are the best of people?"He replied, "The one whose life is long and whose deeds are good."The man asked, "And who are the worst of people?"He replied, "The one whose life is long and whose deeds are evil."
أن رجلا قال: يا رسول الله، أي الناس خير؟ قال: من طال عمره وحسن عمله قال: فأي الناس شر؟ قال: من طال عمره وساء عمله.
Ahmad (20444) and Hakim (1/339) both narrated it, both by way of Hammad bin Salama, from Humayd and Yunus, from Hasan, from Abu Bakra, who mentioned it. Hakim paired Thabit together with Humayd and Yunus. Hasan here is Ibn Abu Hasan Basri, who is a mudallis, though his hearing from Abu Bakra is established, as in the hadith, "This son of mine is a leader..." which Bukhari narrated in the book of Fitan (7109). For this reason Bukhari included several hadiths from Hasan from Abu Bakra using the ambiguous form of transmission ("an"), among them the hadith of the eclipse (1040) and the hadith, "May Allah increase your eagerness, but do not repeat it" (783). Perhaps Bukhari found evidence of his direct hearing through other routes, otherwise the ambiguous transmission of Hasan remains open to question until he states it explicitly. As for the hadith mentioned here, even though Hasan Basri did not state it explicitly, it has another chain that strengthens it.Tirmidhi (2330), Tayalisi (905), Ahmad (20415), and Darimi (2784) all narrated it through routes going back to Ali bin Zayd bin Jadan, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Bakra, from his father Abu Bakra, who mentioned it. Ali bin Zayd bin Jadan is daif, but each of the two chains strengthens the other. As for Tirmidhi's statement, "This is a hasan sahih hadith," it is not as he said, rather he judged it hasan based on the combination of the two chains.