قَالَ: قُلْتُ: عَنِ الْحَجَّاجِ بْنِ دِينَارٍ. قَالَ: ثِقَةٌ، عَمَّنْ؟ قَالَ: قُلْتُ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ. قَالَ: يَا أَبَا إِسْحَاقَ، إِنَّ بَيْنَ الْحَجَّاجِ بْنِ دِينَارٍ وَبَيْنَ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ مَفَاوِزَ تَنْقَطِعُ فِيهَا أَعْنَاقُ الْمَطِيِّ، وَلَكِنْ لَيْسَ فِي الصَّدَقَةِ اخْتِلَافٌ.
Translation: On hearing al-Ḥajjāj b. Dīnār, Ibn al-Mubārak again said “Reliable.” But when the report jumped straight from him to the Prophet ﷺ, he described vast intervening distances that would exhaust mounts; regarding charity he noted no dispute.
Mafāwiz means remote stretches of desert; the image emphasizes the large break in transmission. Two trustworthy names cannot bridge an unmentioned link. The quoted devotional statement was introduced for criticism, not thereby authenticated as Prophetic.