His statement under number 2: “And Ibn Ḥibbān relates a report that the Prophet ﷺ prayed two rakʿahs before Maghrib.”

I reply: This report has a broken chain of transmission and its wording is objectionable. The only sound version is the first narration cited in the book, the wording preserved by al-Bukhārī: “Pray before Maghrib ….” For that reason Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād al-Maʿād, and Ibn Ḥajar, in Fatḥ al-Bārī, both affirmed that nothing authentic has reached us showing the Prophet ﷺ actually performed two rakʿahs before Maghrib. All of this was overlooked by the annotator of Zād al-Maʿād, who, concerning Ibn Ḥibbān’s report—as he notes in his marginal comment 1/312—declared, “Its chain is sound.”

I myself once said the same in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 233, and I may well have been the reason he fell into this error, for he frequently draws on my books, verifications, and numerous source-citations, sometimes reproducing passages verbatim without the least acknowledgment or a single kind word, as though unaware of the Prophet’s ﷺ saying, “Whoever does not thank people has not thanked Allah.” Indeed, he often takes the slightest occasion to criticize me. I nevertheless hope that what moves him is love of good for the Muslims and sincere counsel, not jealousy or envy. We ask Allah for well-being.

I had already pointed out the anomalous nature of this narration, yet it has since become clear to me that its chain is also broken. I therefore set out a full clarification, which I have placed in Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah 5662.