ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd, the ḥāfiẓ, said: “From Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Manṣūr I wrote down more than a thousand hadiths, all of which I gained from him.”
Al-Ḥākim said: “Although Abū ʿAlī the ḥāfiẓ was older than he, he nevertheless selected two hundred fascicles from his narrations. I saw our shaykhs marvel at Abū al-Ḥasan’s superb recitation of hadith.”
He lost his sight in 349 AH and died in 355 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.
Ahmad ibn Hibat Allah narrated to us, from al-Qāsim ibn al-Ṣaffār; my grandfather ʿUmar ibn Ahmad narrated to us; Ibn Khalaf narrated to us; Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥākim narrated to us; Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan told me; Ibn Nājiya narrated to us; Naṣr ibn ʿAlī and Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḥarashī both said:
Ḥammād ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; Ḥanẓala narrated to us; I heard Sālim, from his father, from ʿUmar, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whenever he raised his hands in supplication, would not lower them until he had wiped his face with them.
Al-Ḥākim included this report in his Mustadrak (1), but he was mistaken; Ḥammād is weak.
(1) Reported in al-Hakim, 1/536, and also by Ibn Majah, no. 3866, and by al-Tirmidhi, no. 3383, in the section “Rafʿ al-aydi ʿinda al-duʿaʾ” (Raising the hands when supplicating). Al-Tirmidhi added: “This hadith is …” — the editor Ibrahim ʿAtwah has arbitrarily inserted here the word “sahih.” Al-Tirmidhi continues: “it is gharib (isolated); we know it only through the narration of Hammad b. ʿIsa, who is solitary in transmitting it and reports very few traditions, although people have related from him.”
Al-Dhahabi states in al-Mizan, 1/598, under the entry of ʿIsa b. Hammad: “He was declared weak by Abu Dawud, Abu Hatim and al-Daraqutni, but they did not go so far as to abandon him.” Abu Zurʿah said: “This is a munkar (denounced) report; I fear it has no basis.”
There are two other hadiths on the same topic, yet neither is fit even for supporting evidence. The first is the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbas, recorded by Abu Dawud, no. 1485, and al-Hakim, 1/536; its chain contains Salih b. Hassan, whom Ibn Hajar, in al-Taqrib, judges matruk (discarded). The second is the hadith of al-Saʾib b. Yazid, from his father, recorded by Abu Dawud, no. 1492; its chain includes both a weak and an unknown narrator.