Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; ʿAmr informed us, from Ibn Abī Hilāl, that Abū al-Rijāl related to him, from his mother ʿAmrah—who had been under ʿĀʾishah’s care—on the authority of ʿĀʾishah:
The Prophet ﷺ dispatched a man in command of a raiding party. While leading his companions in prayer he would always conclude his recitation with: “Say, He is Allah, One.” When they returned, they told the Prophet ﷺ what he had been doing. He said, “Ask him why he does that.”
They asked him, and he replied, “Because it describes the Most Merciful, and I love to recite it.”
The Prophet ﷺ said, “Inform him that Allah loves him.”
As for “Muḥammad,” he is Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhalī. Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī stated this in his book Taqyīd al-Muhmal, and I lean toward that view—if the manuscripts are in agreement—for I fear that (1) Muḥammad might in fact be al-Bukhārī, since many copies place the author’s name at the beginning of every ḥadīth, and in some of them it reads: “Muḥammad al-Firabrī: ‘Muḥammad narrated to us.’” This point therefore requires careful verification (2).
Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī (3) said: “Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me; he said: I related…”
(1) In the base manuscript the reading is simply: “No.”
(2) In the version of al-Bukhari quoted by Ibn Hajar the chain begins: “Narrated to us Ahmad b. Salih,” omitting the word “Muhammad” before Ahmad b. Salih. Ibn Hajar notes that this is the predominant wording and that it is likewise adopted by Abu Nuaym in his Mustakhraj and by Abu Masud in al-Atraf. Al-Mizzi, however, reports in al-Atraf that some copies read: “Narrated to us Muhammad, narrated to us Ahmad b. Salih.” Ibn Hajar adds that al-Bayhaqi, following Khalf in al-Atraf, also opts for this wording, and Khalf identifies this Muhammad as Muhammad b. Yahya al-Dhuhali. After citing the hadith through Harmala from Ibn Wahb, al-Ismaʿili remarks that al-Bukhari transmitted it “from Muhammad” without mentioning Ahmad b. Salih, suggesting that his copy read: “Muhammad said.” According to the majority of manuscripts, this Muhammad is al-Bukhari himself, while the phrase “Muhammad said” is attributed to his disciple al-Farbari—a possibility likewise mentioned by al-Karmani. In the Muqaddima (p. 231) Ibn Hajar records the same transmitter under the heading of Kitab al-Tawhid: “Narrated to us Muhammad, narrated to us Ahmad b. Salih.” Most recensions preserve the name “Muhammad,” but it is absent from Ibn al-Sakan’s copy, whereas al-Hakim and al-Kalabadhi insist that the Muhammad in question is al-Dhuhali.
(3) He is the author of Tarikh Dimashq (The History of Damascus).