has been given precedence over the other surahs by containing two prostrations (1).
Through this same chain: Abu ʿUbayd narrated to us; Ibn Abi Zaydah narrated to us; from al-Aʿmash; from Muslim ibn Ṣubayḥ; from Shitayr ibn Shakal; from ʿAli, who said:
When the Day of the Confederates occurred, they kept the Prophet ﷺ so busy that he missed the afternoon prayer. He therefore performed it between the two evening prayers, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “They have distracted us from the middle prayer—may Allah fill their graves and their homes with fire (2).”
With this same chain: Abu ʿUbayd narrated to us; Ibn Abi Zaydah—and Yazid—[narrated] from Hisham; from Ibn Sirin; from ʿUbaydah; from ʿAli, the same report.
Abu Saʿid Sunqur ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Zayni in Aleppo informed us; ʿAbd al-Laṭif ibn Yusuf informed us (ḥ).
And Abu Jaʿfar ibn ʿAli al-Sulami informed us; ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Ibrahim, the jurist, informed us in the year 623 AH; they both said:
Shuhdah bint Ahmad the Scribe informed us; Ṭirād ibn Muhammad informed us; Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn ʿAli informed us in the year 412 AH; Ḥamid ibn Muhammad al-Harawi narrated to us; ʿAli ibn ʿAbd
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Malik also records it in the Muwatta, 1/210 (with al-Suyuti’s commentary), from Nafiʿ, the client of Ibn ʿUmar: a man from Egypt informed him that ʿUmar b. al-Khattab recited Surah al-Hajj, performed two prostrations in it, and then said, “This surah has been singled out with two prostrations.” The hadith is likewise reported by the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Ismaʿili, as quoted by Ibn Kathir, 3/211, through Ibn Abi Dawud: “Yazid b. ʿAbd Allah narrated to us, al-Walid narrated to us, Abu ʿAmr narrated to us, Hafs b. Ghiyath narrated to me, who said: Nafiʿ told me that Abu al-Jahm informed me that ʿUmar prostrated twice in al-Hajj while at al-Jabiyah and said, ‘This surah has been favoured with two prostrations.’” See also al-Mustadrak, 2/390.
(2) Its chain of transmission is sound. It appears in the Musnad under nos. 617, 911, 1036, 1245 and 1298 through several chains from al-Aʿmash with this isnad. It is also reported through the route of Hisham b. Hassaan—from Muhammad b. Sirin—from ʿUbeyda al-Salmani—from ʿAli—by Ahmad (nos. 994, 1220), al-Bukhari (6/76, “Jihad”; 7/312, “Maghazi”; 8/145, “Tafsir”; 11/165, “Duʿa”), Muslim (no. 627), Abu Dawud (no. 409), Muslim again (627 / 203), al-Tirmidhi (no. 2984), al-Nasaʾi (1/236), and Ahmad (nos. 591, 1134, 1150, 1151, 1307, 1313, 1326).